<P> The Constitution, in Article VI, clause (paragraph) 3, states that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States". However, as described in the sections below, voting rights reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries extended the franchise to non-whites, those who do not own property, women, and those 18--21 years old . </P> <Ul> <Li> 1789: The Constitution grants the states the power to set voting requirements . Generally, states limited this right to property - owning or tax - paying white males . </Li> <Li> 1790: The Naturalization Act of 1790 allows white men born outside of the United States to become citizens with the right to vote . </Li> <Li> 1792: Beginning of the abolition of property qualifications for white men, from 1792 (Kentucky) to 1856 (North Carolina) during the periods of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy . </Li> <Li> 1792 - 1838: Free black males lose the right to vote in several Northern states including Pennsylvania and New Jersey </Li> <Li> 1868: Citizenship is guaranteed to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, setting the stage for future expansions to voting rights . </Li> <Li> 1870: Non-white men and freed male slaves are guaranteed the right to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution . However, for many years, some states were very successful at suppressing this vote (see Jim Crow Laws). </Li> <Li> 1887: Citizenship is granted to Native Americans who are willing to disassociate themselves from their tribe by the Dawes Act, making the men technically eligible to vote . </Li> <Li> 1913: Direct election of Senators, established by the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, gave voters rather than state legislatures the right to elect senators . </Li> <Li> 1920: Women are guaranteed the right to vote by the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution . In practice, the same restrictions that hindered the ability of non-white men to vote now also applied to non-white women . </Li> <Li> 1924: All Native Americans are granted citizenship and the right to vote, regardless of tribal affiliation . By this point, approximately two thirds of Native Americans were already citizens . </Li> <Li> 1943: Chinese immigrants given the right to citizenship and the right to vote by the Magnuson Act . </Li> <Li> 1961: Residents of Washington, D.C. are granted the right to vote in U.S. Presidential Elections by the Twenty - third Amendment to the United States Constitution . </Li> <Li> 1964: Tax payment prohibited from being used as a condition for voting in federal elections by the Twenty - fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution . </Li> <Li> 1965: Protection of voter registration and voting for racial minorities, later applied to language minorities, is established by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . This has also been applied to correcting discriminatory election systems and districting . </Li> <Li> 1966: Tax payment and property requirements for voting are prohibited in all U.S. elections by the Supreme Court in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections . </Li> <Li> 1971: Adults aged 18 through 21 are granted the right to vote by the Twenty - sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution . This was enacted in response to Vietnam War protests, which argued that soldiers who were old enough to fight for their country should be granted the right to vote . </Li> <Li> 1986: United States Military and Uniformed Services, Merchant Marine, other citizens overseas, living on bases in the United States, abroad, or aboard ship are granted the right to vote by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act . </Li> </Ul> <Li> 1789: The Constitution grants the states the power to set voting requirements . Generally, states limited this right to property - owning or tax - paying white males . </Li> <Li> 1790: The Naturalization Act of 1790 allows white men born outside of the United States to become citizens with the right to vote . </Li>

Who has the power to set voting requirements