The fight for the right to vote in the United States - Nicki Beaman Griffin

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In the United States today, if you are over eighteen, a citizen, and the resident of a state, you can vote (with some exceptions). So, how have voting rights changed since the first election in 1789? Nicki Beaman Griffin outlines the history of the long fight for a more inclusive electorate.

Lesson by Nicki Beaman Griffin, animation by Flaming Medusa Studios.

When the next general election rolls around,

who will be eligible to show up at the polls

and vote for the President of the United States?

It's really pretty simple.

If you are at least 18 years old,

a citizen of the U.S.,

and a resident of a state,

you can vote,

assuming, that is, you are not a felon.

Seems about right.

After all, the United States prides itself

on being a democracy,

or a government in which the ultimate authority

lies with the citizens of the nation.

But it was not always this way.

In 1789, George Washington won

the electoral college with 100% of the vote,

but whose vote was it?

Probably not yours.

Only 6% of the entire United States population

was allowed to vote at all.

Voting was a right

that only white, male property owners

were allowed to exercise.

By the 1820s and 1830s,

the American population was booming

from the east coast into the western frontier.

Frontier farmers were resilient,

self-reliant,

and mostly ineligible to vote

because they did not own land.

As these new areas of the nation became states,

they typically left out

the property requirement for voting.

Leaders such as Andrew Jackson,

the United State's first common man President,

promoted what he called universal suffrage.

Of course, by universal suffrage,

Jackson really meant universal white, male suffrage.

All he emphasized was getting rid

of the property requirement for voting,

not expanding the vote beyond white men.

By the 1850s, about 55% of the adult population

was eligible to vote in the U.S.,

much better than 6%,

but far from everybody.

Then, in 1861,

the American Civil War began

largely over the issue of slavery

and states' rights in the United States.

When it was all over,

the U.S. ratified the 15th Amendment,

which promised that a person's right to vote

could not be denied

based on race,

color,

or previous condition as a slave.

This meant that black men,

newly affirmed as citizens of the U.S.,

would now be allowed to vote.

Of course, laws are far from reality.

Despite the promise of the 15th Amendment,

intimidation kept African-Americans

from exercising their voting rights.

States passed laws that limited

the rights of African-Americans to vote,

including things like literacy tests,

which were rigged

so that not even literate African-Americans

were allowed to pass,

and poll taxes.

So, despite the 15th Amendment,

by 1892, only about 6% of black men

in Mississippi were registered to vote.

By 1960, it was only 1%.

And, of course, women were still totally out

of the national voting picture.

It wasn't until 1920

that the women's suffrage movement

won their 30-year battle,

and the 19th Amendment finally gave women the vote,

well, white women.

The restrictions on African-Americans,

including African-American women,

remained.

After World War II,

many Americans began to question

the state of U.S. democracy.

How could a nation that fought

for freedom and human rights abroad

come home and deny suffrage based on race?

The modern civil rights movement

began in the 1940s with those questions in mind.

After years of sacrifice,

bloodshed,

and pain,

the United States passed

the Voting Rights Act of 1965,

finally eliminating restrictions

such as literacy tests

and protecting the voting rights

promised under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution.

Now, any citizen over the age of 21 could vote.

All seemed well

until the United States went to war.

When the Vietnam War called up all men

age 18 and over for the draft,

many wondered whether it was fair

to send men who couldn't vote to war.

In 1971, the 26th Amendment to the Constitution

made all citizens 18 and older

eligible to vote,

the last major expansion of voting rights

in the United States.

Today, the pool of eligible voters in the U.S.

is far broader and more inclusive

than ever before in U.S. history.

But, of course, it's not perfect.

There are still active efforts

to suppress some groups from voting,

and only about 60% of those who can vote do.

Now that you know all the hard work

that went into securing the right to vote,

what do you think?

Do enough citizens have the right to vote now?

And among those who can vote,

why don't more of them do it?