Eligibility: meeting the legal requirements to vote

Eligibility is whether a person meets the legal requirements to vote in a particular election, such as age, citizenship, residence, and district. Eligibility is set by law and decided by the responsible election authority. Neither authentication nor a biometric establishes it, and an account on My Vote Forward’s demo has nothing to do with it.

Definition

Eligibility is a legal status relative to one election. A person may be eligible in a school board race but not in a neighboring city’s, eligible this year but not last, or eligible to vote in local elections only. USA.gov summarizes the federal baseline: a person can vote in U.S. federal elections if they “are a U.S. citizen,” “meet your state’s residency requirements,” “are 18 years old on or before Election Day,” and “are registered to vote by your state’s voter registration deadline”.⁠¹ It notes that “North Dakota does not require voter registration”,⁠¹ which shows that registration is a separate procedure from eligibility itself.

Origin and history

U.S. voting eligibility has been widened mainly by constitutional amendment and federal law, and narrowed or shaped by state law. The Twenty-sixth Amendment, for example, provides that “the right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged” on account of age.⁠² The history of who was included and excluded, and how, is told in Access and exclusion.

International law frames eligibility as a right subject only to reasonable limits. Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights gives every citizen the right “to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections” by “universal and equal suffrage,” “without unreasonable restrictions”.⁠³

How eligibility is determined and used

Eligibility is decided by applying legal criteria to a person, usually at registration and again when a ballot is issued.

• Citizenship. Federal law makes it unlawful for a noncitizen to vote in an election held “solely or in part for the purpose of electing a candidate” for federal office, with a narrow exception for separate local contests where state or local law permits noncitizen voting and voting on them “is conducted independently”.⁠⁴ USA.gov notes that “non-citizens, including permanent legal residents, cannot vote in federal, state, and most local elections” and that some areas allow noncitizens to vote in local elections only.⁠¹
• Criminal convictions and mental capacity. USA.gov notes that some people convicted of a felony, and some people with a mental disability, may not be able to vote, with rules differing by state.⁠¹
• Uncertain cases. When eligibility cannot be confirmed at the polls, a person can receive a provisional ballot, which the U.S. Election Assistance Commission describes as kept separate and “not included in the tabulation until after the voter’s eligibility is confirmed”.⁠⁵

These rules are contested. Some argue that stricter verification at registration protects the integrity of the rolls; others argue that additional requirements keep eligible people from voting. Both sides cite the same statute: the National Voter Registration Act lists among its purposes both to “increase the number of eligible citizens who register to vote” and “to protect the integrity of the electoral process”.⁠⁶

Common confusions and neighboring terms

• Eligibility vs. identity. Knowing who someone is does not say whether they meet the legal criteria.
• Eligibility vs. registration. Registration records an eligible person on the roll; eligibility is the underlying status.
• Eligibility vs. authentication and passkey. Proving control of an account or device establishes nothing about citizenship, age, or residence.
• Eligibility vs. jurisdiction. Eligibility is always eligibility in a jurisdiction’s election, because residence determines which contests a person may vote in.

How My Vote Forward uses the term

My Vote Forward treats eligibility as a legal question it cannot answer. Its demo accounts are not linked to voter rolls, and nothing done on the demo depends on or implies eligibility. The framework’s position, in Identity and registration, is that any future official use would rely on election authorities to determine eligibility under law. The question “Does a fingerprint prove eligibility?” is answered no for the reasons above.

Unresolved questions

• If a participation system were open to people who cannot vote (minors, noncitizens), should their priorities be reported separately from those of eligible voters?
• How could a future system confirm eligibility without creating a new database linking identity to political expression?
• How should eligibility differences across jurisdictions be shown to people who live under several at once?