Franchise has expanded since nation's founding

Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 08:00 AM.


Few of the Founding Fathers advocated universal suffrage allowing all Americans the privilege and responsibility of voting. Disagreement over the qualifications for the electorate was so intense the best the framers could do was not to decide and leave the matter to the states (as it is still).

All original 13 states, dominated by wealthy landowners who distrusted the unruly and unpredictable common man, imposed but three prerequisites that had to be satisfied in order to vote: white, male, property owner. The young nation excluded more people than it included and was decidedly not democratic in the sense of participation by all people.

Over the course of our history, however, we have expanded opportunities for citizen participation in the selection of our leaders. With the admission of new states such as Tennessee and Kentucky the aristocracy began to lose its grip on the body politic. In Western states yeomen farmers and rugged frontiersmen, more akin to Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone than Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, held sway. In the 1820s, Andrew Jackson and his followers pushed for greater democracy for the common man. During this “Jacksonian Revolution” suffrage was extended to (nearly) all white adult citizens.

In 1870, former slaves were guaranteed the vote by the 15th Amendment, but that right was often negated by Jim Crow laws enacted by Southern state legislatures. After the marches and sit-ins of the civil rights movement, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a law intended to protect the voting rights of African-Americans. In 1964, the 24th Amendment, prohibiting poll taxes in any election for federal officials, was ratified.

In 1913, the 17th Amendment established direct elections of U.S. senators by popular vote, replacing the Constitution’s original provision that Senators were to be elected by state legislatures. Ratified in 1920, the 19th Amendment prohibits any U.S. citizen from being denied the right to vote based on the sex of the voter. In 1961 the 23rd Amendment gave citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote for presidential electors. Adopted on July 1, 1971, the 26th Amendment barred states or federal government from setting a voting age higher than 18.

Today the right to vote is thought to be an important cornerstone of American democracy. Although initially limited, the franchise, the expanded right to vote, has vastly improved the system set in motion by the framers. The process has had its twists and turns, but we are a better nation for the effort.
Elkin Terry Jack is an adjunct professor at Florida State University Panama City.


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