The twenty-sixth amendment
Question: When was the voting age changed from 21 down to 18?
Answer: The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1971, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
Twenty-Sixth Amendment - Reduction of Voting Age Qualification
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.
The Eighteen-Year-Old Vote:
In extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 1970 Congress included a provision lowering the age qualification to vote in all elections, federal, state, and local, to 18. In a divided decision, the Supreme Court held that Congress was empowered to lower the age qualification in federal elections, but voided the application of the provision in all other elections as beyond congressional power. Confronted thus with the possibility that they might have to maintain two sets of registration books and go to the expense of running separate election systems for federal elections and for all other elections, the States were receptive to the proposing of an Amendment by Congress to establish a minimum age qualification at 18 for all elections, and ratified it promptly in 1971.
And, a June 19, 1993 Herald-Leader article says that in 1955, Kentucky became one of the first states to lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
Linda Niemi
Filed under: Uncategorized
My mother was a public school librarian. I earned a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Kentucky. The Herald-Leader hired me as a news assistant 25 years ago; soon after, I moved to the news research department, where I’ve been ever since. We used to clip newspapers. Now, almost all of our research is online. We've come a long way.
The question on voting age didn’t refer specifically to the U. S. Constitution so I take it the asker is interested in Kentucky.
Kentucky allowed 18-year-olds to vote in 1956, the year I turned 21. My brother, 18, and I walked together to the polling place to cast our first-opportunity ballots.
Georgia was letting 18-year-olds vote before that.
People who will be 18 before the fall election are eligible to vote in primaries when they are 17.