Primary Sources: U.S. Constitution: 26th Amendment

The 26th amendment to the Constitution lowered the voting age to 18. Arizona ratified it on May 26, 1971. The amendment states that "the right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age." Congress had passed the proposed amendment on March 23, 1971. Thirteen weeks later it had been ratified, or approved, by three-fourths of the states and became the 26th Amendment.

When 18-year-olds were drafted to fight in Vietnam, the long-simmering push to lower the voting age to 18 took hold. The 26th Amendment was ratified in 1971, faster
than any other amendment—100 days—and prompted this commentary by cartoonist Bruce Shanks.

This political cartoon was given to President Lyndon Johnson by the Buffalo Evening News political cartoonist. It is inscribed, "For President Johnson with all best wishes."

“Old enough to fight, old enough to vote” was a slogan often heard during World War II. In 1942 it prompted Congressman Jennings Randolph of West Virginia to propose an amendment to the Constitution lowering the voting age to 18.

The slogan would be heard again later during the Vietnam War — and Randolph and other Senators reintroduced the amendment. The 26th amendment was ratified on July 1, 1971, granting the right to vote to American citizens aged 18 or older.

This document is the joint resolution from 1942. A joint resolution is a formal opinion adopted by both houses of the legislative branch. A constitutional amendment must be passed as a joint resolution before it is sent to the states for ratification.

Senate Joint Resolution 7 proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would extend the right to vote to citizens 18 years of age or older. Introduced on January 21, 1971, during the first session of the 92nd Congress, it became the 26th Amendment to the Constitution. A joint resolution is a formal opinion adopted by both houses of the legislative branch. A constitutional amendment must be passed as a joint resolution before it is sent to the states for ratification.

A day after receiving a letter from Congressman Emanuel Celler of New York, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asking his opinion, Louis H. Pollak sent this response. Pollak was a faculty member and former dean of the Yale University Law School, and expressed his support for the passage of House Joint Resolution 223, expanding the right to vote to citizens 18 years or older. One month later Congress submitted the resolution to the states for ratification.

George M. Montross of Detroit wrote to Congressman Emanuel Celler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in opposition to granting the vote to 18-year-olds. He argued that only the states, not the Federal Government, had the power to determine qualifications for voting.

"These notes were written by President Nixon expressing his thoughts on the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The speech was given by the President on July 5, 1971, in the East Room of the White House during the Young Americans in Concert program.

During the White House ceremony, President Nixon signed the 26th Amendment as a witness. His signature was unnecessary to ratify the 26th Amendment because the Constitution does not give the President a role in passing amendments. But Nixon ceremoniously signed it anyway, and he took the unprecedented step of inviting three 18-year-olds to also sign the new amendment."

Michigan Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg introduced Senate Joint Resolution 166 on October 19, 1942. This resolution would have amended the Constitution of the United States and extended the vote to citizens 18 years or older. A joint resolution is a formal opinion adopted by both houses of the legislative branch. A constitutional amendment must be passed as a joint resolution before it is sent to the states for ratification.

Although not ratified at the time, the proposal came up again, during the Vietnam War. The 26th Amendment, that lowered the voting age to 18, was ratified on July 1, 1971.

Attorney General John N. Mitchell made this statement about the constitutionality of legislation passed by Congress that would give 18-year-olds the right to vote.

In April of 1970, Congress had controversially lowered the voting age to 18 as part of legislation to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 had outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. The act was readopted and strengthened in 1970, 1975, and 1982.

Many people, including President Richard Nixon, believed that it was the right of the states, not the federal government, to set the voting age. President Nixon, nevertheless, signed the act, which was to go into effect on January 1, 1971.

In this clip of oral arguments from the Supreme Court case Oregon v. Mitchell, Oregon Attorney General Lee Johnson frames the case about whether Congress has the power to decide the voting age for the states.