Political Representation: Who Can Vote?

At the time of the first federal census, only white male property owners (about 10 percent of the population) could vote. Some states had a religious qualification. None allowed women to vote.

By 1810 religious qualifications had been removed. By 1850, property owner and tax requirements were eliminated. Almost all white males could vote.

Beginning in 1855, some states imposed literacy tests, in part to limit voting by Irish-Catholic immigrants. From at least that time, there was increasing tension between the effort to expand the electorate and efforts to limit that expansion.

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, candidates for the U.S. Senate from the state of Illinois, debated each other at locations all over the state. We often forget, though, that the only voters in that election were the members of the Illinois State Senate.

After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments granted citizenship rights to former slaves, including the right to vote.

In 1868, women in the Territory of Wyoming could vote, but nowhere else in the United States.

In 1889 Florida adopted a poll tax, followed by ten other southern states. In order to vote, one had to present poll tax receipts for every year from the time first eligible to vote. Most of these states also established literacy tests. It was at the sole discretion of the registrar to decide whether the registrant met literacy standards. This made it easier to prevent African Americans from voting.

In 1913 the 17th Amendment established direct election of senators. In 1920 the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote. The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act granted Native Americans citizenship rights, including the right to vote.

In 1944, the Supreme Court banned "white primaries." From the 1950's on, a series of legislative initiatives and Supreme Court decisions eliminated the poll tax and literacy requirements, reduced the voting age to 18, reduced residency requirements and introduced measures making it easier to register and vote.

The work of expanding the electorate goes on.