Throughout the years, many citizens have fought for the right to vote. Citizens of other countries view our country as being lucky just to have the opportunity to help choose the person who will be in charge of our country or to help decide how our constitution will be amended. In recent generations American's have taken this privilege for granted. More and more citizens are becoming less involved in our political system and do not view it as their civil duty to vote. With less people becoming involved the question of whether or not it should be a requirement to vote is raised. American citizens should not be required to vote because some citizens will just vote as a requirement and not because they are interested or care about the issues presented on the ballot and because it will be hard to set a punishment if someone does not vote. When the government was first being established and it was decided that the people should get the right to vote, not all people living in America were considered citizens. The first people that were allowed to vote were "white males who owned property  (Rowen 2000). This meant that any man of any ethnicity other than white, men who could not afford to own property of their own, and women did not have the right to cast their vote. In 1850, congress removed the ownership and tax requirements so that almost all white males can vote. The 13th amendment which freed slaves did not get passed until 1865, and it wasn't until 1870 (Rowen 2000) that the 15th amendment was passed prohibiting the restriction of voting rights "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.  Woman did not get the right to vote until 1920, when the 19th Amendment was passed. Even though so many people before us fought for just the opportunity to be able to vote, many Americans of today's generation take it for granted. Many people view their vote as unimportant or are just not interested in issues being presented. If