Voting is how people get a say in what happens in their city, state or country. In the United States, a citizen who is 18 or older can vote. That is the rule as of February 2026. Voting has a long story. Let's look at three parts of it. First is the ancient city of Athens. Next is the way the United States chooses a president. Last are the rules that kept some people from voting.

Start with Athens. Athens had a democracy in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. The word democracy means "rule by the people." It comes from Greek words. In ancient Athens, male citizens could take part in the assembly where votes were taken. In the Athenian assembly, citizens voted by holding up their hands, and the majority won.

People choose representatives to make decisions for them in government. In almost every state, people register to vote first. North Dakota does not require it. That is the rule as of February 2026. On Election Day, many people go to a polling place to vote. Many votes are decided by a simple majority.

Now look at how the United States chooses a president. The Electoral College is a process, not a place. It is the system by which the president and vice president are chosen. Each state has as many electors as it has members of Congress. That is one for each House member plus two senators. A majority of the electors is needed to elect the President. These rules are as of November 2026.

How did the Electoral College begin? It was made at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. It was a compromise between a vote in Congress and a popular vote. The 23rd Amendment, adopted in 1961, gave Washington, D.C., electors in the Electoral College. That is the rule as of November 2026.

Next, the fight over who could vote. The right to vote is called suffrage. Congress passed the 15th Amendment on February 26, 1869. It was ratified on February 3, 1870. It says the right of citizens to vote cannot be denied because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It gave African American men the right to vote. By the early 1890s, some states had written literacy tests, grandfather clauses and other rules into law. These rules kept African Americans from voting.

Women worked for decades to win the right to vote. An amendment to give women the vote was first introduced in Congress in 1878. Before the 19th Amendment, women won the vote in some states first. Western states led the way. President Woodrow Wilson came out in support of an amendment for women's suffrage in 1918. Congress passed the 19th Amendment on June 4, 1919. It was ratified on August 18, 1920. It gave women the right to vote across the United States.

The poll tax was a payment that had been used to limit voting. Congress passed the 24th Amendment on August 27, 1962. It was ratified on January 23, 1964. It says a citizen cannot be kept from voting in federal elections for failing to pay a poll tax or other tax. In 1966 the Supreme Court decided Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections. The Court held Virginia's poll tax unconstitutional. That extended the ban on poll taxes to state elections.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to overcome legal barriers that kept African Americans from voting. In the South they faced poll taxes, literacy tests and other rules meant to deny them the vote. President Lyndon Johnson signed the law on August 6, 1965. Another change came with age. Before the 26th Amendment, the voting age in most states was 21. During the Vietnam War, support grew for lowering the voting age. Young people led the push. The amendment was ratified on July 1, 1971. It took one hundred days. That is the fastest approval of any amendment.

Words to know

• electors: chosen voters
• assembly: meeting of citizens
• suffrage: right to vote
• compromise: middle way