The Sorry States of Voting Rights in America - A 50 State Comparison

Do you have a right to have your vote counted? 

Yes, but only if you live in California.  If you live anywhere else you are among the 90% of Americans who have no such constitutional right. 

Is casting a secret ballot constitutionally protected? 

It is only protected if you happen to live in one of the 21 states that guarantees secrecy in voting. In fact, only 26 states even guarantees ballots as a means of voting, and the right of suffrage is only found in 9 state constitutions.

Do you expect vote counting to be open to the public in your state? 

You might be surprised to learn that only 3 states include this as a right in their constitution.  These are among the facts discovered when you look specifically at the articulated voting rights contained in state constitutions in America.

Voting is so fundamental to democracy that we assume our voting rights must be enshrined somewhere in the U.S. or State constitutions.  They are not.  Except for several amendments that prohibit states from voter discrimination for certain classes of individuals, the U.S. Constitution is silent on voting rights.  Of course this is so because we don’t really have national elections. Your voting rights depend almost entirely on your state’s constitution, and these precious rights vary significantly from state to state.  

To make this point and raise awareness about this topic I reviewed and cataloged all of the specifically articulated voting rights in all 50 state constitutions.  What is summarized in the tables below are my initial findings.*  

VOTING RIGHTS ARTICULATED IN US STATE CONSTITUTIONS
Number of States With This Right	Percent of US Population WithThis Right	GENERAL VOTING RIGHTS
1	9.7%	Right to Have Every Vote Counted
9	10.5%	General Right of Suffrage
21	44.0%	Right to Free and Fair Election
26	55.3%	Right to voting by ballot
21	46.7%	Right to secret vote
3	5.6%	Right to Public Vote Counting
15	32.6%	Frequency of Elections Right
21	36.5%	Privilege from Arrest during voting
21	36.5%	Privilege from Arrest Exceptions
2	1.6%	Right to accessible polling place
Number of States With This Right	Percent of US Population WithThis Right	QUALIFICATIONS and EXCEPTIONS
49	99.6%	Must be Registered to vote
46	91.2%	Must be Registered to vote
20	27.6%	State's Deployed Solders Can Vote
37	83.9%	Felony Exception
12	15.5%	Treason Exception
13	30.9%	Incarceration Exception
33	69.5%	Mental Capacity Exception
2	0.5%	Moral Conduct or other Exception
23	34.0%	Restoration from Exception
10	17.6%	No quartered solders
2	1.8%	Right to Appeal Voter Ineligibility

 (initial 3/25/12 – Brian T. Lynch)

It is shocking how little attention is given to voting rights in most state constitutions.  This is the first of a series of posts I will present in the coming days to share the findings of my review of state constitutions with respect to our voting rights.  Your feedback and questions are  welcome.  Brian T. Lynch