Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution

During debate of the 1970 extension of the Voting Rights Act, Senator Ted Kennedy argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment allowed Congress to pass national legislation lowering the voting age.[17] In Katzenbach v. Morgan (1966), the Supreme Court had ruled that if Congress acts to enforce the 14th Amendment by passing a law declaring that a type of state law discriminates against a certain class of persons, the Supreme Court will let the law stand if the justices can "perceive a basis" for Congress's actions.[18]

President Nixon disagreed with Kennedy in a letter to the Speaker of the House and the House minority and majority leaders, asserting that the issue is not whether the voting age should be lowered, but how. In his own interpretation of Katzenbach, Nixon argued that to include age as something discriminatory would be too big of a stretch and voiced concerns that the damage of a Supreme Court decision to overturn the Voting Rights Act could be disastrous.[19]

In Oregon v. Mitchell (1970), the Supreme Court considered whether the voting-age provisions Congress added to the Voting Rights Act in 1970 were constitutional. The Court struck down the provisions that established 18 as the voting age in state and local elections. However, the Court upheld the provision establishing the voting age as 18 in federal elections. The Court was deeply divided in this case, and a majority of justices did not agree on a rationale for the holding.[20][21]

The decision resulted in states being able to maintain 21 as the voting age in state and local elections, but being required to establish separate voter rolls so that voters between 18 and 21 years old could vote in federal elections.[22]

Although the Twenty-sixth Amendment passed faster than any other constitutional amendment, about 17 states refused to pass measures to lower their minimum voting ages after Nixon signed the 1970 extension to the Voting Rights Act.[4] Opponents to extending the vote to youths questioned the maturity and responsibility of people at the age of 18. Representative Emanuel Celler, one of the most vocal opponents of a lower voting age from the 1940s through 1970 (and Chair of the powerful House Judiciary Committee for much of that period), insisted that youth lacked "the good judgment" essential to good citizenship and that the qualities that made youth good soldiers did not also make them good voters.[9] Professor William G. Carleton wondered why the vote was proposed for youth at a time when the period of adolescence had grown so substantially rather than in the past when people had more responsibilities at earlier ages.[23] Carleton further criticized the move to lower the voting age citing American preoccupations with youth in general, exaggerated reliance on higher education, and equating technological savvy with responsibility and intelligence.[24] He denounced the military service argument as well, calling it a "cliche".[25] Considering the ages of soldiers in the Civil War, he asserted that literacy and education were not the grounds for limiting voting; rather, common sense and the capacity to understand the political system grounded voting age restrictions.[26]

James J. Kilpatrick, a political columnist, asserted that the states were "extorted" into ratifying the Twenty-sixth Amendment.[27] In his article, he claims that by passing the 1970 extension to the Voting Rights Act, Congress effectively forced the States to ratify the amendment lest they be forced to financially and bureaucratically cope with maintaining two voting registers. George Gallup also mentions the cost of registration in his article showing percentages favoring or opposing the amendment, and he draws particular attention to the lower rates of support among adults aged 30–49 and over 50 (57% and 52% respectively) as opposed to those aged 18–20 and 21–29 (84% and 73% respectively).[28]

Senator Birch Bayh's subcommittee on constitutional amendments began hearings on extending voting rights to 18-year-olds in 1968.[29]

After Oregon v. Mitchell, Bayh surveyed election officials in 47 states and found that registering an estimated 10 million young people in a separate system for federal elections would cost approximately $20 million.[30] Bayh concluded that most states could not change their state constitutions in time for the 1972 election, mandating national action to avoid "chaos and confusion" at the polls.[31]

On March 2, 1971, Bayh's subcommittee and the House Judiciary Committee approved the proposed constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18 for all elections.[32]

On March 10, 1971, the Senate voted 94–0 in favor of proposing a constitutional amendment to guarantee the minimum voting age could not be higher than 18.[33][34] On March 23, 1971, the House of Representatives voted 401–19 in favor of the proposed amendment.[35][36]

Having been passed by the 92nd United States Congress, the proposed Twenty-sixth Amendment was sent to the state legislatures for their consideration. Ratification was completed on July 1, 1971, after the amendment had been ratified by thirty-eight states:[38]

1. Connecticut: March 23, 1971
2. Delaware: March 23, 1971
3. Minnesota: March 23, 1971
4. Tennessee: March 23, 1971
5. Washington: March 23, 1971
6. Hawaii: March 24, 1971
7. Massachusetts: March 24, 1971
8. Montana: March 29, 1971
9. Arkansas: March 30, 1971
10. Idaho: March 30, 1971
11. Iowa: March 30, 1971
12. Nebraska: April 2, 1971
13. New Jersey: April 3, 1971
14. Kansas: April 7, 1971
15. Michigan: April 7, 1971
16. Alaska: April 8, 1971
17. Maryland: April 8, 1971
18. Indiana: April 8, 1971
19. Maine: April 9, 1971
20. Vermont: April 16, 1971
21. Louisiana: April 17, 1971
22. California: April 19, 1971
23. Colorado: April 27, 1971
24. Pennsylvania: April 27, 1971
25. Texas: April 27, 1971
26. South Carolina: April 28, 1971
27. West Virginia: April 28, 1971
28. New Hampshire: May 13, 1971
29. Arizona: May 14, 1971
30. Rhode Island: May 27, 1971
31. New York: June 2, 1971
32. Oregon: June 4, 1971
33. Missouri: June 14, 1971
34. Wisconsin: June 22, 1971
35. Illinois: June 29, 1971
36. Alabama: June 30, 1971
37. Ohio: June 30, 1971
38. North Carolina: July 1, 1971

Having been ratified by three-fourths of the States (38), the Twenty-sixth Amendment became part of the Constitution. On July 5, 1971, the Administrator of General Services, Robert Kunzig, certified its adoption. President Nixon and Julianne Jones, Joseph W. Loyd Jr., and Paul S. Larimer of the "Young Americans in Concert" also signed the certificate as witnesses. During the signing ceremony, held in the East Room of the White House, Nixon talked about his confidence in the youth of America:

As I meet with this group today, I sense that we can have confidence that America's new voters, America's young generation, will provide what America needs as we approach our 200th birthday, not just strength and not just wealth but the 'Spirit of '76' a spirit of moral courage, a spirit of high idealism in which we believe in the American dream, but in which we realize that the American dream can never be fulfilled until every American has an equal chance to fulfill it in their own life.[39]

The amendment was subsequently ratified by five more states, bringing the total number of ratifying states to forty-three:[38]

39. Oklahoma: July 1, 1971

40. Virginia: July 8, 1971

41. Wyoming: July 8, 1971

42. Georgia: October 4, 1971

43. South Dakota: March 4, 2014[40]

No action has been taken on the amendment by the states of Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, or Utah.

• Caplan, Sheri J. Old Enough: How 18-Year-Olds Won the Vote & Why it Matters. Heath Hen, 2020. ISBN 978-1-7354-9300-8.