What are the qualifications to vote in a national election?
In practice, all U.S. citizens 18 years of age or older who meet certain additional qualifications established by the States are eligible to vote in national elections. The Constitution originally provided for a limited degree of public participation in the electoral process, requiring that Members of the House of Representatives be chosen by electors having “the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature”; that Senators be elected by the State legislature; and that electors for President be chosen, as previously noted, “in such a Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.” Prior to the Civil War, State action extended the franchise to a point where all white males, 21 years of age or older, and some black males, in certain nonslave States, were eligible to vote. Since the Civil War, Congress and the States have, through a series of constitutional amendments and legislative enactments, progressively extended the franchise. The 15th Ame
