What is the responsibility to vote?

The responsibility to vote is the duty of citizens to participate in elections and choose the leaders who govern at the federal, state, and local levels. Voting is the most direct form of self-government available to ordinary Americans, and the USCIS materials list it among the responsibilities of citizenship.

Federal elections occur on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November in even-numbered years. Presidential elections occur every four years, House of Representatives elections every two years, and Senate elections every six years on a staggered schedule so that one third of the Senate stands for election each cycle. State and local elections often follow their own calendars, including primary elections, runoff elections, recall elections, and special elections to fill vacancies.

Federal law sets the voting age at eighteen under the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, ratified on July 1, 1971, and prohibits discrimination in voting based on race under the Fifteenth Amendment, ratified on February 3, 1870, on sex under the Nineteenth Amendment, ratified on August 18, 1920, on payment of poll tax under the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, ratified on January 23, 1964, and on literacy or other tests under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Each state administers its own elections within these federal constraints, and registration rules, identification requirements, and absentee voting procedures vary widely. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, often called the motor voter law, requires states to offer registration at motor vehicle agencies and many social service offices.

Voting matters because elected officials make decisions about taxes, schools, immigration, foreign policy, criminal justice, and the regulation of nearly every aspect of public life. Local elections often have small enough margins that a few hundred votes can decide outcomes, and primary elections frequently determine who will represent each major party in the general election.

Voter turnout in U.S. presidential elections has typically ranged from fifty to sixty percent of the voting-age population, with 2020 reaching about sixty-six percent, the highest since 1900. Midterm congressional elections draw smaller turnout, and many state and local races attract turnout below twenty percent. Many citizens supplement voting with related activities such as attending town hall meetings, contacting elected officials, working as poll workers, or running for office themselves.

Naturalization candidates should remember that voting is one of the most important rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship, and that the right is exercised through registration before each election cycle.