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By the 1860s white males largely enjoyed universal suffrage in the U.S. But while voting rights were expanding for some areas of the population, states began enacting laws that barred women, African Americans, Native Americans, and many immigrants from casting ballots.
Voting rights have expanded and contracted—through landmark legislation, constitutional amendments, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions—throughout history, reflecting the evolution of the American democratic project and ultimately embracing the diversity of the electorate.
Since America’s founding days, when voting was limited to white male property owners, to the transformative Voting Rights Act of 1965, to sweeping voting process reform introduced in the early...
The first paper ballots began appearing in the early 19th century, but they weren’t standardized or even printed by government elections officials. In the beginning, paper ballots were...
This is a timeline of voting rights in the United States, documenting when various groups in the country gained the right to vote or were disenfranchised.
The right to vote in America has evolved tremendously since 1789. In 2020, for the first time in this nation’s history, over 159 million people voted in a presidential election. This demonstrates that objectively speaking more Americans than ever are exercising their right to the franchise.
By the mid-1700s, the new model of representative government had swept all 13 colonies, and voting was the norm; however, few were allowed to participate, and electoral systems were inconsistent from colony to colony.
151 years ago --- Through the 15th Amendment, African American men gained the right to vote. From the Amendment's ratification in 1870 until around 1890, there was a brief period in which African American men were able to vote and be elected to congress.
The Fight for The Right to Vote. 1776. The New Jersey Constitution grants voting rights to all inhabitants, including women. 1789. The First Presidential election. Voters must be white male landowners over the age of 21.
After the failure of the Articles of Confederation, the country adopted the United States Constitution in 1787. Article 1 of the Constitution empowers state legislatures to oversee federal elections. Suffrage, or the right to vote, was granted exclusively to white, land-owning men.