Say What?

[Riot]

Even though one under the United States Constitution, in Article VI, section 3, stipulates that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." The Constitution, however, leaves the determination of voting qualifications to the individual states. Over time, the federal role in elections has increased through amendments to the Constitution and enacted legislation, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[1]

At least four of the fifteen post-Civil War constitutional amendments were ratified specifically to extend voting rights to different groups of citizens.

These extensions state that voting rights cannot be denied or abridged based on:

* Birth - "All persons born or naturalized" "are citizens" of the US and the US State where they reside (14th Amendment, 1868)
* "Race, color, or previous condition of servitude" - (15th Amendment, 1870)
* "On account of sex" - (19th Amendment, 1920)
* Washington, DC, Citizenship, restoring voting rights for only Presidential Elections after 164 year suspension by US Congress (23rd Amendment, 1961)
* (For federal elections) "By reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax" - (24th Amendment, 1964)
* Wealth or failure to pay fees - (Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966))
* "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" (26th Amendment, 1971).