Question

List the five protections from the Voting Rights Act of 1965:

Answer 1

Answer:

The 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment, the 19th Amendment, the 24th Amendment, and the 26th Amendment.

Explanation:

14th:  limits restrictions on voting rights that place a "severe burden" on voters.

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and the state they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws."

15th:  prohibits any state or municipal authority from denying the right to vote on the basis of race, color, or previous status as a slave.

"The right of citizens of the United States 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."

19th:  grants citizens the right to vote regardless of gender.

"The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

24th:  prohibits the use of poll taxes in federal elections, but permitted them in state and local elections.

* In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that poll taxes in state and local elections were also unconstitutional because they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax."

26th:  The Twenty-Sixth Amendment set the legal voting age at eighteen.

* The amendment left open how old someone must be in order to register to vote. While some states require people to be eighteen in order to register, others allow sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds to pre-register.

"The right of citizens of the United States, 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."