How did constitutional amendments transform the right to vote in America?
About this video
The original Constitution said a little about federal elections but left most decisions to the states. Later amendments added guarantees against denying the vote based on race, sex, age over 18 and poll taxes. Many practical details are still decided by states, with Congress stepping in only occasionally.
You'll be able to
- describe what the original Constitution said about electing the House, Senate and President.
- list the amendments' guarantees about who is eligible to vote.
- give examples of things the Constitution does not say about voting and explain why states handle them.
Key words
- enfranchise
- To give someone the right to vote.
- abridge
- To limit or cut back a right.
- absentee ballot
- A ballot sent by mail for voters who cannot vote in person, such as military and overseas voters.
Transcript
In some ways it says a lot, and in some ways it says very little. At the framing, it anticipated there would be some power to regulate federal elections when it came to electing Congress. It said, you have to at least enfranchise the people of your state who can vote in the state legislature. When it comes to electing members of the House of Representatives, Congress can come up with rules if it wants for congressional elections.
Senate elections were left to the state legislatures. Presidential elections were left to how the state legislatures wanted to set them up. There are a lot of things about the timing about who's eligible to serve in federal office, but it's really not until a lot of the constitutional amendments. The 15th Amendment ensuring that the right to vote can't be abridged on the basis of race, color, previous condition of servitude, for instance.
Later on the basis of sex, age over the age of 18 or poll tax, we see a lot more additions to guaranteeing who's eligible to vote. But at the same time, there are lots of things the Constitution doesn't say. It doesn't say the right to vote has to be private, it has to be by a written ballot. That we elect one person from a district as opposed to electing several people, state wide.
There are all kinds of mechanics that states come up with, and some are very different from one another and flash out what voting actually in practice looks like. Congress could step in, and it has occasionally. It said things like, here's what voter registration forms should look like. Or when it comes to military and overseas voters, you have to mail out absentee ballots 45 days before the election. Congress once in a while steps in there.
But for the most part, it stays back. It lets the states do things because running an election in Alaska where there are planes going to remote locations to deliver ballots can look very different from other parts of the country. There is the opportunity to step in, but again, a lot of times left to the states to their own devices.
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