What was the voting age lowered to in 1971?

What was the voting age lowered to in 1971?

The Twenty-sixth Amendment (Amendment XXVI) was ratified on July 1, 1971. It lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and declared 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.”

What law was passed in 1971?

Twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution Passed by Congress March 23, 1971, and ratified July 1, 1971, the 26th amendment granted the right to vote to American citizens aged eighteen or older.

When was the voting age lowered from 21 to 18 years?

Sixty-first Amendment of the Constitution of India

Why was the twenty-sixth amendment passed?

The amendment, which lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen, was passed quickly to avert potential problems in the 1972 elections. The drive for lowering the voting age began with young people who had been drawn into the political arena by the VIETNAM WAR.

Who lowered the voting age to 18?

In 1970, Senator Ted Kennedy proposed amending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to lower the voting age nationally. On June 22, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that required the voting age to be 18 in all federal, state, and local elections.

What is the most recent Amendment to be passed?

Twenty-seventh Amendment
Twenty-seventh Amendment, amendment (1992) to the Constitution of the United States that required any change to the rate of compensation for members of the U.S. Congress to take effect only after the subsequent election in the House of Representatives.

When did 18 year olds get the right to vote?

The proposed 26th Amendment passed the House and Senate in the spring of 1971 and was ratified by the states on July 1, 1971.

Why was voting age changed from 21 18?

The drive to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 grew across the country during the 1960s, driven in part by the military draft held during the Vietnam War. A common slogan of proponents of lowering the voting age was “old enough to fight, old enough to vote”.

What was the effect of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment 5 points?

The Twenty-Sixth Amendment has played an important role in expanding the franchise to younger Americans, allowing them to participate more fully in the political process. It ensures that citizens between 18 and 20 years old cannot be deprived of the opportunity to vote on account of age.

What year could 18 year olds vote?

When did the Bill of Rights become law?

Passed by Congress on March 23 and ratified by the required 38 states by July 1, the amendment became law in 100 days, the fastest route to ratification of any of the 27 amendments to the Constitution.

When did the states ratify the 26th Amendment?

On March 23, 1971, the House of Representatives passed the amendment by a vote of 401-19, and the 26th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification the same day. 5  Just a little more than two months later, on July 1, 1971, the necessary three-fourths (38) of state legislatures had ratified the 26th Amendment.

When did the draft age change from 21 to 18?

Between 1940 and 1942, Congress passed successive Selective Service laws that lowered the military draft age first from 21 to 20, then from 20 to 18 in 1942.