I wrote this as a comment to marktheshark's diary on the Ellison-Pocan proposed constitutional amendment on voting. I thought I would also put it up separately
Even if you have the right to vote you do not under the US Constitution have the right to vote for electors of the President and Vice-President. The state legislature gets to decide how those electors are awarded - remember the bill in the works in Florida to award all of that state's electors to Bush in 2000?
Now, there is a provision of the 14th Amendment that has never been enforced, which reads
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
the provision of Male and 21 are considered by many authorities to have been replaced as a result of ratification of the 19th and 26th Amendments, respectively
One might in fact argue that the restrictions on voters being imposed by some Republican controlled states are a violation of this provision of the 14th Amendment, although no one has ever seriously used it against such actions. Further, there is the fact that the provision does not say for how long that state shall lose representation - is it just for that Congress, is it for the duration of the term office (which in the case of the US Senate would be 6 years)?
There are other issues that would arise in the functioning of the House as well.
Remember, we also addressing this in the context of the national popular vote initiative, in which states promise to give all of their electors to the winner of the national popular vote provided a sufficient number of states to constitute an electoral majority agree to do so - this is an attempt to get around the electoral college without the necessity of getting 38 states to ratify an amendment to the Constitution.
There is little point in having a constitutionally guaranteed right to vote that does not include the guaranteed right to vote directly for the highest offices in the land.
If we are going to amend the Constitution with respect to voting, we should address this issue as well.