More than 150 million Americans will vote in next month’s elections, making their choices for positions ranging from president to school board. They will be participating in the most basic expression of citizenship. Voting is fundamental to democracy.
But nearly 100 million voting-age citizens will sit out the election. That should concern us.
We celebrate voting as our civic duty. At the same time, we argue about whether we should make voting easier or more difficult. Should we welcome mail-in voting? Should voters have to show an ID? Can we trust young people and new citizens to vote responsibly? How should we balance voting rights with election security?
These questions are loaded with politics, and politics are the way we make decisions in our democracy. It’s messy at times, and we can always find things to criticize about it. It often falls short of being ideal. But, overall, it serves us very well. After all, what is the alternative? The American people have always rejected authoritarianism.
Decisions about voting have been milestones in American history. At least three of the most impactful amendments to the Constitution, the 15th, 19th and 26th, concern voting. At the beginning, however, the founders didn’t seem to give a lot of thought to the topic, leaving it to the states to adopt their own rules. Most initially limited the franchise to white men who owned property. Some imposed religious tests. By the mid-1800s, many restrictions had been lifted, but only for white men.
Women advocated for suffrage as early as 1848, with the adoption of a “declaration of sentiments” at the Seneca Falls Convention. Some states, particularly in the Mountain West, let women vote. But it took until 1920 to ratify the 19th Amendment, declaring the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged … on account of sex.”
Similarly, the post-Civil War 15th Amendment said the right to vote could not be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” But Jim Crow laws, poll taxes and literacy tests kept Black Americans from voting in much of the South for nearly 100 years. That finally changed with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which I had the privilege of voting for in my first year in Congress.
The Vietnam War inspired a movement to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. If you’re old enough to fight and die for your country, the argument went, you should be old enough to vote. Persuaded, Congress voted to lower the age limit in March 1971, and the required three-fourths of the states ratified the 26th Amendment barely three months later.
Today, it’s understandable that many people don’t vote. We are busy with our work and families. Getting to the polls can be a hassle. Learning about all the candidates can feel like a job. The decline of local news outlets has made it harder to be informed. Some states don’t really make it simple to register and vote.
It’s also easy to think our vote doesn’t matter. The presidential election and the contest for control of the Senate play out in a handful of battleground states. Gerrymandered legislative districts mean that many incumbents are unopposed or may as well be.
Despite all that, I keep in mind the words of the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who declared the vote to be “precious, almost sacred” and “the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.”
The 2024 election will have a profound impact on our nation, the states and our communities. Voting isn’t just a right, it’s a privilege. It’s an opportunity to shape the future and create the more perfect union that the Preamble to the Constitution envisions.
Lee Hamilton is a senior adviser for the Indiana University Center on Representative Government; a distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies; and a professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years. Send comments to [email protected].