suffrage
Suffrage refers to the right to vote in an election.
There have been many suffrage movements throughout U.S. history. The most successful movements resulted in the addition of the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Following the Civil War, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were added to the Constitution, which aimed to expand civil rights, especially to people recently freed from slavery. Of note is the Fourteenth Amendment section 2, which gave the right to vote to all non-felon male citizens over the age of 21. In 1920, the Constitution was again amended to add the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave the right to vote to all citizens over the age of 21 regardless of sex. The Voting Rights Act (VRA) extended voting rights to racial and "language" minorities in 1965 and 1975, respectively. In 1971, the Constitution was amended by the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18. Following the ratification of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment and expansion of the Voting Rights Act, all non-felon U.S. citizens aged 18 or older can vote in federal elections.
[Last reviewed in March of 2026 by the Wex Definitions Team]
Wex