There are four amendments to the U.S. Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.

Why this is the answer

Each of the four voting amendments knocked down one specific barrier, and USCIS asks you to describe only one. The official answers are short paraphrases of those amendments, so the story behind each makes them easier to hold on to. Start with the oldest. Ratified in 1870, the 15th Amendment says the vote cannot be denied because of race, color or previous condition of servitude. It came after the Civil War and the end of slavery, and the official answer keeps the wording of its time: a male citizen of any race can vote. Women were still shut out until 1920, when the 19th Amendment, won by the women’s suffrage movement, barred denying the vote on account of sex. That is the answer “any citizen can vote (women and men can vote).” The poll tax answer has a darker backstory. After the 15th Amendment passed, some leaders in the Southern states, upset that African Americans could now vote, created fees called poll taxes to keep them away from the ballot. The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, ended poll taxes in elections for President, Vice President and Congress, which gives you “you don’t have to pay (a poll tax) to vote.” The newest is the 26th, from 1971. For most of the country’s history you had to be 21 to vote. During the Vietnam War years many Americans argued that anyone old enough to fight in a war was old enough to vote, and the amendment set the age at 18. In the interview, say what the amendment does. “The 19th Amendment” gives a number without the description the question asks for, while “women can vote” answers it in three words. To keep all four straight, put them in date order and a pattern appears: race, then sex, then money, then age.