Janet Hernández’s belief in “people power” took root along the US-Mexico border as the native Texan accompanied her mother for signature collection and sit-ins to advocate for basic public services for her community. 

“A road on our block got paved because of her efforts, and kids in the neighborhood no longer got their shoes muddy when we walked to school,” says Hernández, Kogod/BA ’07. “She wanted a better life for us, and she was willing to fight for it.”

As associate director of elections and voting at the nonpartisan Democracy Fund, Hernández has picked up the mantle from her mother, ensuring that people of color have a voice in the electoral process. Created by eBay founder and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar, the foundation has awarded nearly $425 million in grants since 2014 to build a more inclusive, multiracial democracy that is open, just, resilient, and trustworthy.

“We need to ensure that our elections are free and fair,” says Hernández, who oversees Democracy Fund’s Voting Power and Resilient Elections initiatives. “That means making sure election administrators—92 percent of whom are women—have the resources they need and can do their work free from political violence and that voters can go to the poll to make their voices heard without fear and intimidation.”

In the decade since the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which dismantled key protections of the Voting Rights Act, at least 29 states have passed 94 restrictive voting laws, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Hernández supports power-building organizations that are fighting for access to the ballot box—especially in communities of color.

“I work with neighbors, community leaders, and election administrators who take action every day to create change and protect and promote democracy, and it just fills my tank,” she says.

Hernández finds joys in “people exercising their power”—including her mother, who cast a ballot for the first time in 2020 after becoming a US citizen.

“She’s my hero,” Hernández says. “She reminds me what’s possible.”

Voting Rights: A Timeline

1800: Massachusetts passes the first law requiring citizens to register before voting.

1828: Maryland becomes the last state to eliminate all religious restrictions to voting.

1838: Pennsylvania’s new state constitution lifts economic voting qualifications for White men while banning all Black men from the ballot box—even those who had previously met tax and ownership requirements for voting.

1848: Elizabeth Cady Stanton helps launch the women’s suffrage movement during the Seneca Falls Convention in New York.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo grants citizenship—but not voting rights—to Mexicans living in US territories. 

1866: Former Confederate states adopt Black codes restricting the freedom of 4 million newly emancipated people. New statutes prohibiting “vagrancy” lead to the imprisonment and disenfranchisement of Black men.

1870: The 15th Amendment is ratified, granting Black men the right to vote.

1880: New Jim Crow laws disenfranchise eligible Black voters, while “grandfather clauses” exempt White voters from poll taxes and literacy tests.

1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibits Chinese immigrants from naturalizing as American citizens.

1884: In Elk v. Wilkins, the Supreme Court rules that Native peoples are not citizens, even those who are “tax paying.”

1890: Wyoming becomes the 44th state—and the first to allow women to vote. The Cowboy State extended the vote to women in 1869 when it was still a territory.

1893: Men in Colorado pass a referendum amending the state constitution to extend voting rights to women.

1917: Led by three-time AU alumna Alice Paul, the National Woman’s Party begins a nine-month silent picket in front of the White House, urging President Woodrow Wilson to endorse women’s suffrage.

1920: The 19th Amendment grants women the right to vote. However, it still allows voter suppression laws to target women of color.

1924: The Indian Citizenship Act gives citizenship to Native peoples born in the US—but not the right to vote. In 1962, New Mexico becomes the last state to grant suffrage to Native Americans.

1940: Only 3 percent of eligible African Americans in the South are registered to vote.

1944: In Smith v. Allwright, the Supreme Court strikes down a Texas law allowing only White voters to participate in the primaries. Black voter participation jumps. 

1957: The Civil Rights Act of 1957 authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file lawsuits on behalf of African Americans denied the vote and creates both a civil rights division and a federal commission.

1961: The 23rd Amendment gives DC residents the right to vote for president—but not congressional representation.

1963: Fannie Lou Hamer, a leader of Mississippi’s voting rights movement, succeeds in her third attempt to register to vote.

1964: The 24th Amendment outlaws poll taxes in federal elections.

The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

1965: State troopers attack John Lewis and 500 other nonviolent protesters on “Bloody Sunday” as they march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act (VRA) into law. By the end of the year, 250,000 new Black voters are registered.

1971: With the ratification of the 26th Amendment, the voting age drops from 21 to 18.

1974: The Supreme Court rules in Richardson v. Ramirez that states may disenfranchise people convicted of a felony. Recent efforts in 26 states and DC have reinstated the voting rights of 2 million people; however, another 4.6 million people convicted of a felony remain unable to vote.

1975: Congress adds new provisions to the VRA to protect members of language minority groups.

1978: California becomes the first state to allow voters to apply for an absentee ballot without having to provide an excuse.

1982: As part of the 25-year extension of the VRA, Congress passes a law requiring states to make voting more accessible for older adults and people with disabilities. 

1993: More than 30 million Americans register to vote at motor vehicle agencies, public assistance offices, disability offices, and other state and local offices through the new National Voter Registration Act, known as the “motor voter” law.

2002: The Help America Vote Act—written in the wake of the fraught 2000 presidential election—provides states with federal funding to modernize voting equipment and procedures. 

2008: In Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court upholds an Indiana law requiring voters to present photo identification.

2010: Fifteen years after holding the first entirely mail-in federal primary election, Oregon moves entirely to a vote-by-mail system. 

2011: A record number of voting restrictions that disproportionately impact people of color are introduced in state legislatures.

2013: The Supreme Court overturns part of the VRA in Shelby County v. Holder, no longer requiring states and local governments to notify the DOJ of changes to voting laws. Leading up to the 2018 election, 23 states enact new obstacles to voting, including roll purges and the elimination of same-day registration.

2020: About 158 million people vote in the presidential election—the highest turnout since 1900.

2021: The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would modernize and revitalize key aspects of the 1965 law, passes the House but stalls in the Senate. A second attempt in 2022 also fails. 

More than 440 bills with provisions that restrict voting are introduced in 49 states in the 2021 legislative sessions.