October 10, 2026
September 17, 1787
The convention signs the Constitution. Article I does not name the voters.
For the U.S. House, each state uses the same qualifications it already uses for the larger house of its own legislature. States also set the times, places, and manner of those elections. Congress can change those rules by law.
So the start is a state rule, not a national roll.
February 3, 1870
The 15th Amendment is ratified. Congress passed it on February 26, 1869.
The right of citizens 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. Congress can enforce that.
The National Archives notes that literacy tests and grandfather clauses were still written into law afterward, especially in former Confederate states. The amendment stayed. The practice often did not match it.
August 18, 1920
Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment. Congress passed it on June 4, 1919.
Sex cannot be the reason a citizen is kept from voting. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certifies the ratification on August 26, 1920.
Some states already let women vote, so August 18 is not the first day any American woman cast a ballot. Other barriers in state law did not end with the certification.
1924
Citizenship. Not a ballot.
The Indian Citizenship Act says non-citizen Indians born in the United States are citizens, and that the grant does not take tribal or other property. The sentences we could read never mention the vote.
The National Archives files the enrolled act as 1924. The signature day on that scan is not clear, so we do not guess it.
January 23, 1964
A poll tax cannot decide a federal election. That is the 24th Amendment. Congress passed it on August 27, 1962.
No poll tax or other tax can block a vote for president, vice president, presidential electors, senator, or representative. State and local elections are not in that sentence. Harper, two years later, reaches them.
August 6, 1965
Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act.
Section 2 says no voting qualification or practice shall be used to deny or abridge the right to vote on account of race or color. Places that met a coverage formula also had to clear new voting rules with the federal government first. The Archives connects the bill to the attack on marchers in Selma, Alabama, earlier that year.
In 2013, Shelby County v. Holder took out that coverage formula. It did not repeal the Act. That case is a later guide. This date is the signing.
1966
Annie Harper could not pay Virginia's $1.50 poll tax, so she sued.
In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, the Supreme Court held 6 to 3 that the tax violated equal protection. This is the state half. The 24th Amendment had covered federal elections. Harper reaches the state poll tax.
More detail
The case is 383 U.S. 663. Justice William O. Douglas wrote the opinion. Justices John Marshall Harlan II and Hugo Black dissented. The Court overruled Breedlove v. Suttles, from 1937. It heard arguments on January 25 and 26, 1966, and decided the case on March 24, 1966.
July 1, 1971
Eighteen.
The 26th Amendment says the vote of citizens who are 18 or older shall not be denied on account of age. Congress passed it on March 23, 1971.
What this page will not do
It will not pick a candidate for you. Your state still runs the election, and a later court can change how an earlier act works. These eight dates are the national documents, not every rule on your local ballot.
A law is the rule. A candidate's record is what that person said, set next to the official file. For a person, open a race desk. The Iowa U.S. Senate desk is one place to start, and the methodology shows how a comparison gets its label.
Sources
- National Archives, A More Perfect Union. Signing on September 17, 1787.
- Constitution transcript. Article I, Sections 2 and 4.
- Amendments 11 through 27. Passage and ratification dates for the 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments, and the text.
- 15th Amendment milestone page. Later literacy tests and grandfather clauses. Archives review date May 16, 2024.
- 19th Amendment milestone page. Tennessee as the 36th state, and Bainbridge Colby's certification on August 26, 1920. Archives review date February 8, 2022.
- Indian Citizenship Act, Archives scan labeled 1924 (document).
- Voting Rights Act milestone page. Signed by Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965.
- Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663. Argued January 25 and 26, 1966. Decided March 24, 1966.
- Oyez, Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections. The $1.50 tax, the 6 to 3 vote, Douglas, Harlan, Black, and Breedlove.
Sources retrieved September 23, 2026.