Voting...a Right or Privilege???

Well, my witty little sister has brought up an interesting point on voting and whether its a right or privilege. She stumbled upon an article, while doing a silly school project, about a women who is stating that many people write to her and oppose her view that voting is a right. First, lets look at the difinitions of "right" and "privilege". This is complicated so hold on.

Right, in the sense of a noun, is defined as "a just claim or title, whether legal, prescriptive, or moral" or "that which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees, moral principles, etc.: women's rights; Freedom of speech is a right of all Americans."

Privilege, in the sense of a noun, is defined as "a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most", "a grant to an individual, etc., of a special right or immunity, under certain conditions", as well as "any of the rights common to all citizens under a modern constitutional government".

So as you can see, "right" and "privilege" can be used interchangably in most cases. However, in the situation of a "right to vote" I would say it IS a privilege when you look at the circumstances given. The fact that their are "circumstances" to being able to vote purely means (in my opinion) that voting is a privilege.

Secondly, you need to understand the legislation behind the "right to vote". Bear with me, this will be slightly painful but think...you are learning something you probably did not know by reading this. And actually, the States are given the authority to control voting. They are the ones who have made it illegal to vote if you have committed a felony.

The following are pieces from the U.S. Constitution.

14th Amendment: This basically states that the right to vote is given to any white male who is at least 21 years of age and who has NOT committed "rebellion" or "other crimes".

15th Amendment: This removes the restriction placed on race and makes it possible for any male to vote regardless of race.

19th Amendment: Otherwise known as "Women's Suffrage". This removed the bar of women voting.

24th Amendment: This is the legislation that states nobody will be refused the right to vote because they have not paid taxes. This does not make sense to me. Let me put it in a different perspective. I am a shareholder of many companies including Google. Public companies such as Google, have annual shareholders voting for various items. Now granted, I do not hold enough stock in Google to make a peep in what goes on but thats not the point. The reason the shareholders are given the privilege to vote is because they are providing the capital to Google to run the business for the shareholders. Now, translate shareholders into citizens and Google into the U.S. of America Government. Do you see why this doesnt make sense to me now??? Moving on...

26th Amendment: Finally, last one. This is the legislation that gave the privilege to vote to those who are 18 years of age and older.

Ok. Now we understand the legislation behind voting. Going back to the definitions, it seems that "privilege" is a better word because of this statement..."a grant to an individual, etc., of a special right or immunity, under certain conditions". These amendments give certain conditions or circumstances that enable a person to vote in this country. Each individual state actually has the power to restrict voting as well. The decision to not let felons vote is on the state level. Actually, there have been and currently are "movements" to push towards allowing felons to vote. They say that they have done their time and should be restored to normal civil rights. Whatever.

So, to answer your question Megan...I believe voting is a "privilege" not a right. It is a "right" until it was decided that restrictions, or conditions, must be placed on voting. This is due to several different reasons. Since those conditions are in place, voting is a "privilege". I hope that was not too confusing. :)