The Voting Rights Act was instituted in 1965 to eliminate barriers that began to appear, especially in the South, to try to stop black voters from being able to cast a ballot. Prior to the conception of the Voting Rights Act, there were literacy tests that blocked certain voters from exercising their right to vote. The Voting Rights Act established that anyone registered to vote that was a US citizen over the age of 18 was allowed to cast a ballot.
This law still stands and is a tenet of US democracy allowing all citizens the equal right to vote under law. The act prohibits states from creating additional laws or policies that work to restrict voting rights giving the federal government the full responsibility over the facilitation of voting.