The right of citizens of the United
States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.
The Congress shall have the power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
On March 23, 1971 Congress proposed the Amendment to lower
the voting age from 21 to 18. It was
ratified by the states in 98 days, and became part of our constitution on July
1, 1971,[i]
becoming the quickest amendment ever to be ratified. But why?
Well, two things happened that led to this amendment. The first was the political activism of the
1960’s where first the civil rights, and then the anti-Vietnam war movements
convinced the politicians of a need for change, and then there was, as their
usually is, some judicial challenge that forces a change.
The idea of lowering the legal age from 21 to 18 can be
traced back to the second world war. It
was supported by President Eisenhower, but changes to the status quo,
especially if there is no pressing need, oft times come slow. In 1963, a Presidential commission
recommended the idea to President Johnson, but it was not until 1970 when things
came to a head.
In that year, Senator Ted Kennedy, (D-MA) proposed amending
the 1965 Voting Rights Act to lower the minimum age for all elections to
18. President Nixon signed the
legislation, but voiced concern over the constitutionality of the provision,
and directed his Attorney General to cooperate on expediting a court case to
determine its legitimacy.[ii]
In Oregon vs Mitchell (1970), the Supreme Court of the
United States found the Congress could establish a voting age for the national
elections, but could not force the states to lower it for state and local
elections. At the time, only four states
had 18 as their legal age to vote. Faced
with the possibility they would have to maintain two sets of voter
registrations, one for federal and one for state, the multitude of states
quickly agreed to the amendment and so it came to be.
I was 20 when the amendment passed, so it did minimally
affect me, but the thing that stands out in my memory was the nature of the
disagreements on this issue. I don’t
recall rancor or animosity, neither side seemed to have an issue with lowering
the age, it was only a debate on how to do it within the framework of our
principle guiding document, the U.S. Constitution.
How different we see the political debates
today, when every issue is crouched as if it were a great moral debate and
challenge to our society. The 26th
Amendment should stand as a testament on how fast we can do something, if
personality politics are put aside in the political debate, but then again, we
didn’t have the media fanning the flames of political differences quite as hard as they do now.
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