Voting rights in the United States

Voting rights in the United States
Congress overrode Andrew Johnson's veto to pass the 1867 District of Columbia Suffrage Act (Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, March 16, 1867)
Demographics
Poll taxes	Abolished 1964
Literacy tests abolished	Abolished 1965 for federal elections
Minimum voting age	18 in most jurisdictions
Preregistration age	16 in 41 states and D.C.; 17 in 4 states; 17.5 or older in 4 states
Felon voting status	Individual petitions required in 2 states; circumstantial in 5 states; restrictions under probation in 20 states; restrictions under parole in 2 states; unrestricted after prison release in 18 states and 2 territories; unrestricted in Maine, Vermont, Puerto Rico and D.C.
Noncitizen voting	Banned in federal and all state elections, allowed in some jurisdictions
Voter registration
Voter registration required	All states except in North Dakota
Online voter registration	Implemented fully in 40 states, D.C. and Guam; in-process in Oklahoma and Maine; implemented in Texas for those renewing licenses
Automatic voter registration	Implemented in 15 states and D.C.; in-process in 6 states
Same-day registration	same-day and early-voting registration in 8 states and D.C.; same-day only in 9 states; early-voting only in 2 states; same-day and early-voting registration in-process in 2 states
Partisan affiliation	Partisan registration in 31 states and D.C.; nonpartisan registration in 18 states
Voting process
Polling place identification requirements	photo ID required in 8 states; photo ID requested in 9 states; non-photo ID required in 3 states; non-photo ID requested in 13 states
Postal ballot status	no-excuse in 34 states (all-postal in 7 states)
Permanent list postal ballot status	10 states
Election method	First-past-the-post plurality in 44 states; two-round systems in 5 states; ranked-choice voting in Maine
Voter powers
Redistricting system	12 states with nonpartisan or bipartisan commissions for congressional redistricting; 16 states with commissions for legislative redistricting; Iowa uses nonpartisan staff
Prison-based redistricting	10 states prohibit prison redistricting
Ballot question rights	Legislative referral in 49 states and D.C. (26 states with some form of ballot initiative by petition)

Constitutional law of the United States
Overview
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Principles
Separation of powers Individual rights Rule of law Federalism Republicanism Equal footing Tiers of scrutiny
Government structure
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Individual rights
Freedom of religion Freedom of speech Freedom of the press Freedom of assembly Right to petition Freedom of association Right to keep and bear arms Right to trial by jury Criminal procedural rights Right to privacy Freedom from slavery Due process Equal protection Citizenship Voting rights Right to candidacy Comprehensible rules
Theory
Living Constitution Originalism Substantive due process Political process theory Judicial restraint Purposivism Textualism Strict constructionism Common good constitutionalism
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Part of the Politics series
Voting
Balloting Ballots Absentee ballot Provisional ballot Sample ballot Candidates and Ballot measures Write-in candidate Electorate Slate Ticket Collection Ballot box Compulsory voting Early voting Electronic voting Open ballot Polling place Postal voting Precinct Vote center Voting booth Counting Popular vote Tally Voting machine
Electoral systems Plurality and majoritarian systems First-past-the-post voting Two-round system Instant-runoff voting Plurality-at-large voting General ticket Usual judgment Proportional and semi-proportional systems Single non-transferable vote Cumulative voting Binomial system Party-list Single transferable voting Spare vote Mixed-member systems Mixed-member proportional Additional member system Mixed single vote (positive vote transfer) Scorporo (negative vote transfer) Mixed ballot transferable vote Alternative Vote Plus Dual-member proportional Rural–urban proportional Majority bonus system Parallel voting (Mixed member majoritarian)
Voting strategies Issue voting Fusion voting Split-ticket voting Straight-ticket voting Tactical voting Vote pairing Protest votes Abstention Donkey vote Election boycott None of the above Refused ballot Spoilt vote
Voting patterns and effects Coattail effect Voting advice application Likely voter Paradox of voting Passive electioneering Vote splitting Political apathy Voter fatigue Voter turnout Protest votes
Electoral fraud and prevention Ballot harvesting Ballot stuffing Voter intimidation Vote buying Voter suppression Voter caging Prevention Election ink Secret ballot Voter registration End-to-end verifiable voting
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Voting rights, specifically enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups, have been a moral and political issue throughout United States history.

Eligibility to vote in the United States is governed by the United States Constitution and by federal and state laws. Several constitutional amendments (the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth specifically) require that voting rights of U.S. citizens cannot be abridged on account of race, color, previous condition of servitude, sex, or age (18 and older); the constitution as originally written did not establish any such rights during 1787–1870, except that if a state permitted a person to vote for the "most numerous branch" of its state legislature, it was required to permit that person to vote in elections for members of the United States House of Representatives.^[1] In the absence of a specific federal law or constitutional provision, each state is given considerable discretion to establish qualifications for suffrage and candidacy within its own respective jurisdiction; in addition, states and lower level jurisdictions establish election systems, such as at-large or single member district elections for county councils or school boards. Thus, the enfranchisement or disenfranchisement in one state may be stricter or more lenient than in another state.^[2] Beyond qualifications for suffrage, rules and regulations concerning voting (such as the poll tax) have been contested since the advent of Jim Crow laws and related provisions that indirectly disenfranchised racial minorities.

A historic turning point was the 1964 Supreme Court case Reynolds v. Sims that ruled both houses of all state legislatures had to be based on electoral districts that were approximately equal in population size, under the "one man, one vote" principle.^[3][4][5] The Warren Court's decisions on two previous landmark cases—Baker v. Carr (1962) and Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)—also played a fundamental role in establishing the nationwide "one man, one vote" electoral system.^[6][7]

In cases of county or municipal elections, winner-take-all systems in at-large districts have been repeatedly challenged as diluting the voting power of racial minorities, violating the Voting Rights Act. Generally the solution to such violations has been to adopt single-member districts (SMDs), but systems of proportional representation such as the single non-transferable vote and cumulative voting have also been used since the late 20th century to correct for dilution of voting power and enable minorities to elect candidates of their choice.

Citizens living in U.S. territories cannot vote for president of the United States.^[8] However, those residing in the District of Columbia can vote for president as a result of the Twenty-third Amendment.