This upper-level seminar will examine the nature of political participation in the United States. Topics inclide: women's suffrage; minority voting rights; historic and contemporary efforts at voter suppression; felon disenfranchisement; rules regarding ballot access; Gen-Z voting patterns; a thorough examination of who turned out to vote in the 2024 presidential election -- and importantly, who didn't. We conclude with a normative discussion of how voting has been employed as a took to radically alter the nature of American democracy.