Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment imposes a penalty on states that deny voting rights to eligible citizens: Congress reduces the state's House seats and Electoral College votes in proportion to the disenfranchised population.
Ratified in 1868 as a compromise to discourage Southern states from blocking Black citizens from voting after the Civil War, the provision aimed to give states an incentive to enfranchise African American men without explicitly requiring it.
Southern states ignored the penalty, and Congress never enforced it, prompting ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 to explicitly ban race-based voting restrictions. No serious congressional enforcement effort has occurred since.
The Supreme Court's political question doctrine likely prevents courts from forcing Congress to reduce a state's representation today, making Section 2 largely a historical curiosity despite remaining part of the Constitution.