Taking part

To vote in the United States you must be a citizen, be 18 years old or older by Election Day, and meet your state's rules about where you live. In almost every state you must also register before you can vote. Many states let 17-year-olds vote in a primary election if they will be 18 by the general election. Check your own state's rule.

Four amendments to the Constitution decide who may vote. The 15th Amendment says the vote cannot be denied because of race. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. The 24th Amendment banned the poll tax, which was a fee some states charged before letting a person vote in a federal election. The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18.

Elections are run by the states, not by the federal government, so the details differ from place to place. Each state sets its own registration deadline. Each state also sets its own rules about identity documents and about voting early or by mail. North Dakota is the only state with no voter registration at all. Many states let you register on Election Day itself.

Registering is free and usually quick. The federal website vote.gov sends you to your own state's system. Many states let you register online. Most states also let you register when you apply for or renew a driver's license. There is a national paper form as well, and most states accept it by mail. You normally need your name, your address and your date of birth. You also need a driver's license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number.

Register again whenever you move or change your name, because your registration is tied to one address. On Election Day you go to the polling place for that address. If your state allows voting by mail, you can send in a ballot instead. Your ballot is secret, and nobody may make you show how you voted.

Federal elections are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, in even-numbered years. The whole House of Representatives is elected every two years. About a third of the Senate is elected every two years. The President is elected every four years. States and cities often hold their own elections on other dates, and the parties hold primary elections earlier in the year to choose their candidates.

One warning matters while you are waiting for your citizenship decision. If you are not a citizen yet, do not register to vote and do not vote in a federal election. It is a federal crime, and it can end your chance of becoming a citizen. If a clerk at a driver's license office offers to register you, say no until after you have taken the Oath of Allegiance.

Three everyday duties come up on the civics test: paying federal taxes, serving on a jury when a court calls you, and, for men, registering with the Selective Service System. None of them is complicated. Each one has a date or an age attached to it, and that is usually what the question is testing.

Most people who earn money in the United States must send a federal income tax return to the Internal Revenue Service once a year. The last day to send in federal income tax forms is April 15, for money earned during the year before. If April 15 falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day. Sending the form and paying the tax are two different things, since some people owe money and many others receive a refund.

Paying federal tax is required by law, and the 16th Amendment gives Congress the power to tax income. One accepted answer is that all people pay to fund the federal government. The money pays for the armed forces, for Social Security and Medicare, for federal courts and agencies, for highways and national parks, and for interest on the national debt. Americans treat paying honestly and on time as a civic duty. Unpaid or unfiled taxes can also count against a person who is applying to naturalize.

Jury service is how ordinary people take part in the courts. Courts build their lists of possible jurors from public records, such as lists of registered voters and driver's license holders. They then send a summons by mail. A summons is not an invitation, and you must answer it. To sit on a federal jury you must meet several conditions. You must be a citizen and at least 18 years old. You must have lived in the court's district for at least one year. You must be able to read, write, speak and understand English. You must not have a mental or physical condition that would stop you from doing the work. You must not be facing felony charges that can be punished by more than one year in prison. You must not have a felony conviction that has taken away your civil rights.

There are two kinds of jury. A trial jury listens to a case in court and decides it. A grand jury decides only whether there is enough evidence to charge a person with a crime. Federal law protects your job while you serve on a federal jury, so an employer may not fire you for going. Jury service is what makes the right to a trial by jury work in practice.

Almost every man living in the United States who is aged 18 through 25 must register with the Selective Service System. That includes citizens and most men who are not citizens, including permanent residents. Registering is required by law, and Americans treat it as a civic duty. A man must register at age 18. The law allows him to register between 18 and 26. He can do it online at sss.gov or at a post office. Under current law women do not register.

Registering is not the same as being drafted. The United States has had an all-volunteer military since 1973 and has not drafted anyone since then. A draft could only start if Congress passed a law and the President signed it. The list of registered men exists so that a draft would be fair if it ever happened. A man who fails to register can lose state student aid, federal job training, and many federal jobs, and it can cause problems in a naturalization case.