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When Franklin Roosevelt lowered the draft age from 21 to 18, he started controversy. The saying "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote" became very popular. -
Jennings Randolph, a congressman of West Virginia, proposed the first federal bill to lower the voting age to 18. This is the first time Jennings spoke about the voting age, but not the last. -
Georgia becomes the first state to lower its state and local voting age to 18. -
President Eisenhower became the first U.S. President publicly support the constitutional amendment to lower the national voting age to 18. He announced this position in his 1954 State of the Union address on January 7, 1954. -
During the Vietnam War and civil rights era, student activism grew, as organizations like Let Us Vote and Common Cause campaigned for the expansion of voting rights. These people were full of pride and protest. They became leading faces in the campaign.
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The Supreme Court, in Oregon vs Mitchell, ruled that Congress had the authority to lower the voting age for federal elections, but not for state and local elections. This created chaos with states needing separate voting procedures based on age for different elections. -
The Senate voted 94-0 in favor of proposing a Constitutional amendment to guarantee that the minimum voting age could not be higher than 18.
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The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, officially reduced the national voting age from 21 to 18. After its passage by Congress in March 1971, it was swiftly approved by 38 states, Ohio becoming the 38th on June 30, 1971, making it the fastest-ratified constitutional amendment in U.S. history. -
President Richard Nixon certified the amendment, with 18-year-old witnesses present at the White House ceremony. -
Ella Mae Thompson Haddix became the first 18-year-old American to register to vote. She did so in Randolph County, West Virginia, accompanied by U.S. Senator Jennings Randolph, the lawmaker who championed lowering the voting age. -
1972 - 2024: 55% of voters ages 18-24 participated in the 1972 election. Participation steadily dropped after that. It went down to 36% in the 1988 election. It rose to 49% in the 2008 election. It declined to 19.9% in 2014. 66% participated in the 2020 election. In 2024, 64% voted. Voting rose, then took a nose dive, then rose and became steady.