24th Amendment is signed, outlawing the poll tax

In 2012, the voter eligibility debate is over new state-issued rules that require strict forms of identification at the polls. Voter ID supporters say the laws will stop election fraud; opponents say voter ID laws impose burdens on poor, elderly, and disabled voters.

Occasionally, the words “poll tax” are tossed into the debate by voter ID opponents, including recent statements from Attorney General Eric Holder. But how many current voters even know what the poll tax meant, or how long it took for a massive expansion of our electorate?

In September 1787, the constitutional framers left the details about voting to the states. They did establish a framework to elect the president and Congress, using indirect elections for the chief executive and the Senate. But voting rights aren’t part of the original, unamended Constitution.

By some estimates, only 10 percent to 16 percent of Americans were eligible to vote in early elections, because states limited voting rights to white, adult males who owned property (and in some cases, who could pass religious tests).

Compare that to 2008, when 65 percent of eligible people in the United States were registered to vote.

Until the Civil War, the fight over voters’ rights was about how many white male adult voters each state would allow to cast ballots and if they had to own property.

Then in the aftermath of the Civil War, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1870, saying the right to vote—at least in theory—could not “be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Poll taxes and literacy tests

In practice, states had tools like literacy tests and the poll tax to keep blacks and other voters from the polls. Literacy tests were actually developed in the North before the Civil War to bar Irish immigrants from voting.

The poll tax was used as part of a set of Jim Crow state laws that targeted blacks. States used “grandfathered” clauses to allow poorer white votes to skip the tax.

The 15th Amendment also didn’t apply to women or Native Americans, and it took more than two generations to change that.

In the wake of Prohibition, the 19th Amendment in 1920 gave women the right to vote, and in 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act extended voting rights in federal elections to all Native Americans.

In 1943, Congress repealed an act that barred Chinese immigrants the right to vote and become citizens.

Still, the battle raged on as civil rights advocates sought realistic voting rights for minorities, particularly in the South.

The passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1957 set up a federal commission to investigate voter discrimination. In 1964, the 24th Amendment was passed to prohibit poll taxes. The landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 expanded efforts to protect minority voters.

In 1966, the Supreme Court, in the case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, effectively eliminated poll taxes in state elections, expanding the ban on poll taxes in federal elections established by the 24th Amendment.

It took nearly another decade for the courts to end literacy tests.

Also, in 1971 the 26th Amendment extended voting rights to people who are at least 18 years of age.

Another key landmark was the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, which requires polling places to offer access for disabled voters.

The debate today is centered on a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld Indiana’s voter ID law.

In the case of Crawford v. Marion County, the Court said Indiana had the right to require government-issued photo IDs at the polls, and that the state had a right to take efforts to prevent voter fraud.

The court also rejected the idea that a burden was placed on voters who needed to gather documents to get a free photo ID.

The current voter ID cases involve lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Texas, and a voter referendum in Minnesota in November.

The Pennsylvania ruling was the latest in a string of legal victories for the supporters of voter ID.

Scott Bomboy is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.

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Throughout 2012, we’ll be celebrating the 225th anniversary of the Constitution. But the Constitution drafted and signed in 1787 was just the beginning–since then, “We the People” have amended the Constitution 27 times.

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the 26th Amendment (ratified July 1, 1971). Here’s what you need to know:

WHAT IT DOES

The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 years old.

WHY IT WAS ADDED

With the draft during the Vietnam War came increasing pressure to lower the voting age. If they were old enough to go to war, young people argued, they were old enough to choose the leaders with the power to send them to war.

Congress proposed the 26th Amendment on March 23, 1971. The amendment was ratified by three-fourths of the states on July 1, 1971. It was the most quickly ratified amendment.

WORD-FOR-WORD

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen 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.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The 26th Amendment today

On March 23, 2012–the anniversary of the amendment’s proposal–Rock the Vote joined the National Constitution Center in kicking off the second annual Democracy Day, a celebration of the right to vote for young Americans. Check out the video below for a look at the exciting and important moments in voting history.

Celebrate the 225th anniversary of the Constitution and civic holidays and milestones throughout the year! Download a hi-res PDF for the National Constitution Center’s 2012 civic calendar here.

Holly Munson is a programs coordinator at the National Constitution Center and the assistant editor of Constitution Daily.

Working at the National Constitution Center, the Constitution Daily writers all pay probably more attention to news items relating to the Constitution than most folks. So when this story came to our attention last month, we were fascinated by Maryland’s belated attention to the 17^th Amendment.

It got me thinking about how many amendments experienced similar fates and also about those which never made it through the entire ratification process. Here’s the scoop on legislative action (or inaction has the case may be), by the numbers:

2 – The number of ways the Constitution can be amended, as described in Article V

11,000+ – The number of amendments that have been introduced in Congress

6 – The number of amendments that have then passed from Congress but have not gotten enough state votes for ratification

35 – The number of states that have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, three short of the necessary 38

128 – The number of years it took for Tennessee, the last state, to ratify the 15^th Amendment, eliminating race as a barrier to voting

8 – The number of states that have yet to ratify the 26^th Amendment, setting the voting age at 18

1995 – The year that Mississippi ratified the 13^th Amendment, the amendment abolishing slavery

202 – The number of years it took for the 27^th Amendment, the last, to become ratified, originally proposed in 1789

There has even been a proposal to change the amendment process!

Each of these numbers could probably spawn blog posts of their own because of the history and backstory involved, but the most intriguing to me was the difference between the number of proposals submitted versus the number of amendments that have actually been fully ratified. I think it shows that as sentiments and opinions about laws change, there is a clear vehicle for reflecting them. Yet, at the same time, it shows that not every idea may be worth setting so definitively in the Constitution. The process of ratification ensures that any major changes have solid, serious weight and consideration behind them.

If you want even more information about proposed Amendments, here are the Top 10 that haven’t quite made it through the process.

Paige M. Scofield is a Management Consultant at Accenture and former Programs and Communications Coordinator at the National Constitution Center. She hopes to see the ERA ratified in her lifetime.