26th Amendment
Old enough to fight, old enough to vote
Voting age lowered to 18
- Millions of young Americans rally and campaign to try and lower voting age.
- Many young adults in the Vietnam War said they were young enough to fight so why shouldn't they have a say in who their commander-in-chief be?
- State legislators take up the idea and ask congress to pass a law.
Challenges faced
- Richard Nixon passed the Voting Rights Act, which lowered the voting age to 18
- Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional because Congress can't mandate voting age for state or local elections
- Amendment was purposed and on March 23, 1971 the amendment was adopted