• HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    7 months ago

    There are voter rolls that each state maintains of eligible voters. These rolls have to conform to minimum guidelines, like allowing all US citizens without felonies 18 years or older to vote. However, the federal government doesn’t have any never had any maximum guidelines.

    If a state decided that all 16 year old citizens could vote, the Federal Government couldn’t do anything. Same with how different states address allowing felons who have served their time the ability to vote. In theory, this could include allowing non-citizens the opportunity as well.

    This was built into the Constitution as an option. All elections, including for President, have some mechanism in place so that it doesn’t matter if a state has a lesser or greater percentage of its residents vote over other states. After all, the Constitution was written in mind where several states would have significant slave populations.

    It is unknown if a federal maximum guideline would be constitutional, since it really messes with the division of powers between the states and the federal government.