Essay 30-C: The Twenty-Sixth Amendment and The Founding Documents
Americans in the state of Georgia have been able to vote at age eighteen since the middle of World War II, but it was not until 1971, with the passage of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, that 18-year-old Americans in every state became eligible to vote.
In Colonial America, colonists often had to turn twenty-one, in addition to any other requirements, before they could be entrusted with the responsibility of voting in an election. Unlike today, there was no set age limit for purchasing or drinking alcohol.
Prior to the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, the Constitution mentioned that citizens were to be twenty-one years old with respect to voting. While it did not prevent states from allowing younger American citizens to vote, beginning in 1868, it penalized any state who prevented men twenty-one and older from being able to vote.
Whereas Twenty-Seventh Amendment would take more than 200 years after it was proposed to be ratified, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment set a new record by being ratified in less than three months. Five states ratified the amendment on the very day it was passed by Congress. It seemed to be a rather popular amendment at the time.
