Why is voting commonly viewed as a right rather than a privelege?

[BoomerD]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act#No_affirmative_right_to_vote

No affirmative right to vote

While the title of the Voting Rights Act might imply that it established an explicit right to vote for U.S. citizens to vote in presidential elections, there is no such federal right. However, the Voting Rights Act and three constitutional amendments that prevent discrimination in granting the franchise have established in United States Supreme Court jurisprudence that there is a "fundamental right" in the franchise, even though voting remains a state-granted privilege. However, states are given considerable leeway when it comes to this "fundamental right".

In Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), the Supreme Court noted that, "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States," a logical conclusion given the history of the Electoral College. States do not have to extend suffrage to ex-felons, nor do they have to allow citizens to register and vote on Election Day. In 2008, the Supreme Court upheld voter ID laws, claiming that the states had an interest in deterring voter fraud.[34] While the Supreme Court has stated that the right to vote and the right to be a candidate are connected, they have often upheld state laws that make it difficult for independent and minor party candidates to be included on the election ballot.[35]

Not being a state, Washington, D.C. has been granted only limited voting rights by Congress, which controls the District "in all cases whatsoever", according to the District Clause of the Constitution.[36] U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. re-introduced House Joint Resolution 28 in March 2005 to amend the U.S. Constitution and create a federal right to vote.[37] The resolution had 60 co-sponsors as of October 2006