26th Amendment Pros And Cons

26th Amendment Pros And Cons

The 26th amendment gives U.S. citizens who are 18 years old or older the right to vote in elections. In 1971, the 26th amendment was passed by Congress on March 23rd and added to the Constitution on July 1st. During World War II, the argument over reducing the voting age from 21 to 18 was a long–debated topic that continued over to the Vietnam War. This debate started because men who were under the age of 21 were denied voting rights but were being enlisted to fight for the United States. While the United States was focused on WWII, President Roosevelt decreased the military draft age so that people who were 18 were able to be drafted into the military. The youth voting rights movement used the saying "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote" as a slogan for their movement.

One of the first states to reduce the legal voting age was Georgia in 1943. Georgia decreased the legal voting age to 18 years old from 21 years old. This was done so citizens who were 18 years old or older could vote in local and state elections. Jennings Randolph was a democrat from West Virginia and also a congressman. Jennings proposed a federal legislation in 1942 to decrease the legal voting age. It was the first of many attempts that Randolph introduced the legislation. He was then elected into the Senate and introduced the bill to Congress. In 1960, the United States was involved in the long and expensive Vietnam War; however, youth protestors assembled to grab lawmakers' attention to the problems of enlisting men and women who wanted the right to vote.

In 1969, less than 60 decisions were presented to Congress to reduce the voting age. The next year, Congress passed a bill changing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it presented a changed that the new voting age was 18 for federal, local, and state elections. The bill was signed by President Nixon and placed into the law, but he believed his actions were unconstitutional because he believed that "Congress had no power to enact a simple statute, but rather it requires a constitutional amendment". As a result of the Oregon v. Mitchell supreme court decision, the supreme court decided 18 to 20 years old could vote for the president and vice president but not for state officials going up

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