Reclaim Democracy!

Why We Need An Affirmative Right to Vote Amendment

By Jeff Milchen and Brittany Trushel

Contents

  1. Why We Need a Right to Vote Amendment
  2. Our Campaign and What You Can Do
  3. Frequently Asked Questions
  4. Learn More: Recommended Resources

From childhood, U.S. citizens are so immersed in references to our “right to vote” that few of us ever question it. The trouble is the U.S. Constitution directly mentions voting rights only in negative terms, i.e. it merely forbids disenfranchising citizens based on wealth, race, sex, or adult age via the 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments.

Whether or not we agree with their reasoning, a majority of U.S. Supreme Court Justices have claimed repeatedly that this omission means the Constitution provides no affirmative right to vote, meaning voting is merely a privilege that state officials may administer or infringe as they see fit, so long as they do not clearly violate those four Amendments. This position enables state legislatures, officials, and others to employ an expansive range of tactics to suppress voters (some states do enshrine the right to vote for their citizens) while placing the burden of proof upon the disenfranchised.

Chief Justice Roberts and a majority of current Justices have been overwhelmingly hostile to voters and willing to override voting rights laws passed by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in Congress. Thus, we should not expect the Court to reverse any pro-democracy precedent on its own.

Reclaim Democracy! believes fundamental rights cannot be left to the temporal majorities in Congress or the Supreme Court and that citizens advance democracy most effectively by driving fundamental rights into the text of the Constitution. Accordingly, we work toward amending the Constitution with an affirmative right to vote and to ensure each person’s vote counts equally. See more about our campaign below.

What We Can Do

First, we support vital voting and election protection measures under consideration by Congress in the Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA).

As we state in the introduction, however, a majority of current Supreme Court Justices may seek any plausible opportunity to strike down or weaken legislative protections for voters. They’ve already denied our Constitution’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” applying to voters.

Also, the bills mentioned above are complex, multi-faceted, and likely will go through many changes. That does not diminish their value but presents challenges for average citizens to follow, understand, and mobilize around them. While building momentum toward a Constitutional Amendment may be a long-term effort, it also may be the most powerful way to engage citizens and build political pressure to pass voting rights legislation in the short term.

There is value in mobilizing citizens around these clear and simple principles:

  • All citizens have the right to choose their representatives.
  • All citizens have an affirmative right to vote and have that vote counted equally.
  • Our federal government must protect these rights and not leave them to the whims and fluctuations of state legislatures.

Reclaim Democracy! founder Jeff Milchen stated in launching the organization three decades ago, “The survival of fundamental rights must not depend on fleeting majorities within Congress or the Supreme Court. We advance democracy and secure our rights by driving them into the Constitution.”

Specific Actions You Can Take

Discuss the need for an affirmative right to vote with your friends, family, on social media, calling in to talk radio, and more. Movements begin with a broadly shared consensus that a fundamental injustice must be corrected.

Write about it. Letters to the editor (use our guide and bcc us) and to your elected officials are key channels.

Work with local or state nonprofits or political parties and suggest adding a platform plank or statement of support for a Right to Vote Amendment (ask us for tips and sample language). This also is a great approach for many involved in civil rights, pro-democracy work, etc.

Share this page and related features like the 50+Ways to Suppress Voters via email and social media.

Meet with your local editorial board. Organize 2-5 people representing different local constituencies and seek to meet with your local newspaper board with the goal of educating them on the issue and perhaps writing an editorial. See our guide to organizing editorial board meetings.

Engage us! We welcome your ideas to grow this effort with ideas for videos, graphics, current news hooks, state-specific outreach, and more. We’ll gladly help motivated writers succeed in publishing guest commentaries in your region. Learn more about Reclaim Democracy’s presentations.

Native American voters experience many obstacles to voting
Many voting rules create unique obstacles for Native American voters
(image courtesy of NARF).

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FAQs

Q. Don’t we already have constitutional Amendments that secure our voting rights?

A. The 15th, 19th, and 26th amendments prohibit withholding voting rights based on a person’s race, sex, or (adult) age, and the 24th Amendment bars disenfranchisement by poll taxes. However, all amendments are framed negatively, meaning a state cannot discriminate against a citizen for those specific reasons. The door is open for disenfranchisement through many other tactics even if their effect is clearly discriminatory.

Q. Bills are pending in Congress that would banish many of the common vote suppression tactics. Why not wait to see if they pass?

A. As detailed above, we encourage legislative reforms and present our Amendment strategy as a complement to, not a replacement of, legislative work. We should push toward an Amendment regardless of legislative progress for three major reasons:

1) strong voting rights protections may not pass the Senate unless Democrats alter or terminate the filibuster, which they have refused to do;

2) many citizens are challenged to follow long, complex, and changing bills and effectively support them. A clear, rights-based Amendment that drives forward foundational principles (without detailed implementation language) is a far better vehicle for organizing public support. Such support may well help force passage of legislation that would otherwise be blocked.

3) we currently have a federal judiciary and Supreme Court packed with anti-democratic judges, including a Chief Justice (John Roberts) who is deeply rooted in voter suppression. We cannot trust that strong, thorough legislation will survive court challenges.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his opinion upholding the Trump administration’s “Muslim travel ban” that even Trump’s public admissions of discriminatory intent did not prove bias because the lawyers wrote the order without mentioning Islam. By this logic, a law specifically designed to disenfranchise certain voters would be constitutional as long as the backers did not state a specific intent in the legislation. Again, the right to vote is too important to leave to a court’s discretion.

Have a question you’d like to see answered here? Ask us!

Learning More: Recommended Resources

Books (Many document the civil rights voting struggle; these are a few that speak to the need for a Right to Vote Amendment).

Other Resources

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