👍?? - Expansion Of Voting Rights

🗳 Elections Clause (Article I, Section IV): States determine the times, places, and manners of elections, though Congress can make or alter these regulations.

👩 19th Amendment (1920): Guaranteed women the right to vote.

🪶 General Citizenship Act (1924): Granted all Native Americans citizenship rights, including suffrage.

🏛 23rd Amendment (1961): Gave Washington D.C. citizens the right to vote for President and granted them 3 electoral votes, though they still face taxation without full Congressional representation.

🚫 24th Amendment: Banned poll taxes, which were primarily used in Southern states to prevent poor individuals, mostly African-Americans, from voting.

⚖ Civil Rights Act (1964) & Voting Rights Act (1965): The CRA forbade discriminatory voter registration and literacy tests. The VRA strengthened these bans and required states with a history of discrimination to get federal "preclearance" for new election laws.

🎂 26th Amendment & Youth Voting: Guaranteed that no state can deprive anyone 18 or older of the right to vote. Some Maryland localities have even changed laws to allow 16-year-olds to vote in local elections.

🏫 Symm v. U.S. (1979): Established that college students can register to vote at their college address.

🗺 State-by-State Variations (Virginia Examples): Voting laws vary by state. In Virginia, 17-year-olds can vote in primaries if they turn 18 by the general election, registration is required 22 days before an election, mail-in and early voting are permitted, ID is required (or an affidavit can be signed), and felons must apply to the Governor for rights restoration.

🏛 Recent Supreme Court Rulings:

• Shelby v. Holder (2013): Struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, ruling that preclearance for states with a history of voter discrimination is no longer needed.

• Allen v. Milligan (2023): Held that Alabama's redistricting practices were unconstitutional.