Constitution
The Twenty-sixth Amendment: The Voting Age of Eighteen
The Twenty-sixth Amendment bars the United States and the states from denying the vote to citizens aged eighteen or older on account of age.
The text
Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified July 1, 1971.
Note: Amendment 14, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 1 of the 26th amendment.
Section 1.
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.
Section 2.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Note: Amendment 14, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 1 of the 26th amendment.
In plain English
Section 1. The right of citizens 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."
Section 2. Congress has power to enforce the Amendment.
The Amendment changed the voting age in all elections, federal, state and local, from the twenty-one that most states had used since the founding era. It also changed the 14th Amendment's reference to "twenty-one years of age," as the National Archives notes.
The Amendment sets a floor, not a ceiling: it forbids denying the vote to those eighteen or older on account of age, but it does not require states to enfranchise younger citizens.
It was ratified on July 1, 1971, in a little over three months, the fastest ratification of any amendment in American history.
What the Founders said
The call to lower the voting age grew during World War II and the Vietnam War, when eighteen-year-olds could be drafted but could not vote. President Eisenhower called for a lower voting age in 1954. By 1970, the slogan "old enough to fight, old enough to vote" was widely used.
Congress tried to lower the age by statute, in the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970. The Supreme Court, in Oregon v. Mitchell (1970), held that Congress could lower the age for federal elections but not for state and local elections. Because states would have had to run two sets of ballots and rolls, Congress proposed the Amendment in March 1971.
The Framers had left the voting age to the states and used twenty-one as the common age of majority.
How the courts have read it
- Oregon v. Mitchell (1970): Congress could set the voting age at eighteen for federal elections but not for state and local elections; the decision prompted the Amendment.
- Symm v. United States (1979): the Court summarily affirmed a decision that a Texas county registrar could not apply a stricter residence test to college students than to other citizens, under the Twenty-sixth Amendment.
- Lower courts: recent litigation has addressed whether laws that make voting harder for young voters, such as the treatment of student IDs, violate the Amendment, and results have varied.
Why it matters now
The Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified quickly and with little opposition, a rare example of strong consensus. The principle behind it, that those who bear the burdens of citizenship, including military service, should have a voice in government, is one that conservatives and others have embraced.
Questions remain about the details. Whether the age should be lower or higher is an old argument, and a state could, within the Amendment's terms, set rules for registration and residency for students. The courts have been asked to decide whether specific rules cross the line from reasonable administration into denial on account of age.
The Amendment also shows the constitutional division of labor. Congress tried to act by statute and the Court said the Constitution gave that power to states in state elections. The remedy was an amendment, passed by the states and by two-thirds of Congress, the path the Framers described.