Twenty-sixth Amendment
Twenty-sixth Amendment
The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution , ratified July 1, 1971, gives young adults age eighteen and older the right to vote in state elections.
When the original Constitution was ratified in 1788, only white males over the age of twenty-one had the right to vote. Eighty-two years later that right was granted to African Americans, followed by women in 1920.
The Voting Rights Act of 1970 set eighteen as the minimum voting age for both federal and state elections. The Supreme Court ruled that the Voting Rights Act applied only to federal elections, and that the power of Congress did not extend to other elections. This ruling meant that the government would have to maintain two sets of registration books and run separate election systems for federal elections and any other elections. The expense to do so would be exorbitant.
Congress reacted by adopting the Twenty-sixth Amendment, and the states ratified it without hesitation.