The Constitution has been amended 27 times.

That may sound like a lot, but that's over the course of almost 250 years.

And consider this, almost 12,000 amendments have been proposed.

The fewer than 30 have made it through the amendment process, is a testament to the strength

of the framers' original design.

The most famous amendments are, of course, the first ten, the Bill of Rights.

Most of the others fall into three broad categories.

Those that expanded the franchise, voting rights.

Those that expanded the federal government's power.

And those that fixed issues relating to the office of the presidency.

Let's look at each category.

Category one, those that expanded the franchise, voting rights.

The 17th amendment, ratified in 1913, took the selection of senators out of the hands

of state legislatures and placed it into the hands of the voters.

The framers had believed that state officials would collectively have a better grasp of the

state's needs than would ordinary citizens.

However, as political machines grew and influenced during the 19th century, so did political corruption.

A bribery scandal involving the selection of an Illinois senator in 1910 tipped the scales

in favor of direct election.

The 19th amendment, ratified in 1920, guarantees that suffrage shall not be denied on account

of sex.

In other words, women were given the right to vote.

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