The Right to Vote

In America today, any U.S. citizen who is at least 18 years old can vote, but this wasn't always the case. During America's early history, not everyone had the right to vote. Free white men who owned property were the first to be able to vote. Only these people voted in the first presidential election in 1789 when George Washington became president.

Then in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment was passed. It stated that any man, no matter his race or color, could vote. Fifty years later in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote. And lastly, in 1971 the Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. As you can see, there were some major changes between who could vote in the first election vs. who can vote today.