I must be going daft, but I can’t find the answer to this in the Constitution anywhere! Does the US Constitution give people the right to vote?
It is considered one of the ‘privileges and immunities’ of the citizens of the states safeguarded by the 14th Amendment. I can’t pull up the relevant citations right now; perhaps someone else would be kind enough.
More basically, Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution guarantees that the states shall provide a ‘republican’ form of government. Presumably that means democratic elections in certain cases.
Please note, though: you do NOT have the right to vote for the President. The method of ‘chusing’ electors is left to the various states (see Article II, Section 1). For several years at the beginning of the country, the electors were chosen by methods other than popular vote; the 1824 election is the first for which vote totals are given from some states in choosing electors; by 1828 I think all states were choosing them that way, a by-product of Jacksonian democracy.
Is it in fact the case that the Constitution guarantees a “right to vote”?
Article I, Section 2, establishes that the U.S. House of Representatives must be chosen by the same electors who choose the most numerous house of the legislature in each state – but does not presume to specify who those electors are. Neither did Amendment XVII (which made election of Senators direct).
Certainly, a number of amendments – XV, XIX, XXIV, and XXVI – have been thought necessary through the years to deny the states the power to exclude classes of potential voters (former slaves, women, the untaxed, those of eighteen or more years). Even today, many states withhold the right to vote from convicted felons, for a period of time or until and unless reinstated by the courts.
The Constitution may guarantee the right of vote in certain circumstances, but it does not guarantee the right of any given person, or even citizen, to vote.
Amendment XV, Section I
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Amendment XVI
Provided, That the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
Amendment XIX
The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Amendment XXIV
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for president or vice president, for electors for president or vice president, or for senator or representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Amendment XXVI
The right of the citizens of the United States who are 18 years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age.
So, even with all those cites, there’s still nothing to say we have the right to vote for choosing specific officers.
Actually, (and thanks for the cites kunilou), despite all the “cannot be denied’s” there’s nothing that says this:
No person can be denied the right to vote due to…
o intelligence (although FLA is proving that!)
o sexual preference
o state of livingness/death (but you can seek office dead/vote in ILL)
o The use of old-fashioned 3 letter state abbreviations instead of the new, postal 2 digit code.
o being a human vs. some sort of alien interloper
I think you get the gist.
Article I
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
So the People can vote, but it appears the states can set qualifications on voters. kunilou’s cites then restrict what the states can use as qualification to vote.