Elections and Voting Rights

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein 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 person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

For more information:

• 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
• Constitution Annotated: Fourteenth Amendment Citizenship, Equal Protection, and Other Rights of Citizen (Congress.gov)
• Landmark Legislation: The Fourteenth Amendment (U.S. Senate)

Section 1.

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–

For more information:

• 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
• The Day of Jubilee: Celebrating the 15th Amendment in Boston (National Park Service)
• The Fifteenth Amendment in Flesh and Blood: The Symbolic Generation of Black Americans in Congress, 1870–1887 (U.S. House of Representatives)

For more information:

• 19th Amendment (National Park Service)
• 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
• Woman Suffrage Centennial (U.S. Senate)

Section 1.

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.

For more information:

• Constitution of the United States: Twenty-Fourth Amendment (Congress.gov)
• The Twenty-fourth Amendment (U.S. House of Representatives)

Section 1.

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.

For more information:

• The 26th Amendment (Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum)
• The Twenty-sixth Amendment (U.S. House of Representatives)

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

For more information:

• 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct Election of U.S. Senators (1913) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
• Constitution of the United States: Seventeenth Amendment (Congress.gov)
• Landmark Legislation: The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution (U.S. Senate)

Section 2.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

For more information:

• Lame Duck Sessions of Congress, 1935-2018 (74th-115th Congresses) (Congressional Research Service)
• Twentieth Amendment: Presidential Term and Succession (Congress.gov)
• The Twentieth Amendment (U.S. House of Representatives)

For more information:

• The Twenty-seventh Amendment (U.S. House of Representatives)
• Twenty-Seventh Amendment: Congressional Compensation (Congress.gov)

For more information:

• Electoral College & Indecisive Elections (U.S. House of Representatives)
• Twelfth Amendment: Election of President (Congress.gov)

Section 1.

The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 3.

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4.

The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

For more information:

• Twentieth Amendment: Presidential Term and Succession (Congress.gov)
• The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Library of Congress)

Section 1

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

For more information:

• Presidential Terms and Tenure: Perspectives and Proposals for Change (Congressional Research Service)
• Twenty-Second Amendment: Presidential Term Limits (Congress.gov)

Section 1

The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

For more information:

• District of Columbia Statehood and Voting Representation (Congressional Research Service)
• Twenty-Third Amendment: Presidential Electors for the District of Columbia (Congress.gov)

Section 1

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2

Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

For more information:

• The Establishment and First Uses of the 25th Amendment (Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum)
• Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Presidential Vacancy and Disability (Congress.gov)
• The Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Sections 3 and 4—Presidential Disability (Congressional Research Service)