Today, voting for government officials is a special right shared by United States citizens who are eighteen years old and older. Each person can vote only once in an election, and voting is done in secret. That means voters do not have to tell anyone who they voted for. Although some practices remain the same, some voting practices have changed over time.
A long time ago, in order to vote, you had to be male and own land. This meant that only a small group of men could vote. Over time, the right to vote was extended to more and more people. This happened because of the hard work of people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Susan B. Anthony. With more people voting, new practices were needed.
Years ago voting looked very different than it does today. For many years, voting was not done in secret. Voters had meetings at public buildings. They would raise their hands or voices to show who they wanted to vote for. In some cases, voters would line up on different sides of a room to show who they were voting for.
Today, voters go to polling sites where they can vote. In some states, voters mark their choices on paper slips, called ballots. Some people even send in their ballot by mail. In other places, paper ballots have been replaced with voting machines. As new technologies are created, voting will probably continue to change.