The Twenty-Sixth Amendment

The Text

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.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

What It Says

Citizens eighteen or older cannot be denied the vote on account of age.

What It Protects Against

Conscription without representation. The argument that carried it was that a government drafting eighteen-year-olds cannot simultaneously deny them a vote on the government doing the drafting.

Protocol Media reading. Not sourced to a ratification-era document.

Problem Addressed

Men were subject to the draft at eighteen during the Vietnam War while the voting age in most states remained twenty-one. This amendment moved from proposal to ratification in roughly three months, the fastest in American history.