Amendment Twenty Six and It's Meaning

Amendment Twenty Six

"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."


Amendment 26 is important because it states that anyone over the age of 18 may vote. Before, it was 21 years of age, which made no sense because they were drafting 18 year olds to war. That is all there is to this amendment. I am thankful for it and believe that it is an appropriate age to be able to vote.

This was a super good video. It is short and gives useful facts regarding the amendment. It shows the history of all the voting amendment and what year each became proposed and ratified. The 26th was proposed in June of 1970 and ratified and put into Constitution in July of 1971. I never knew it was so recent that this became an amendment so that was something new I learned as well.

I think this video would have been a good video to use for back in the 70s when some of the states did not agree with the voting age going down to 18. It uses a quote "old enough to die, old enough to vote" which I thought was very powerful for just eight words. The video shows soldiers who are young fighting in war, some against their own will, to protect the country. They had no voice, but were forced to fight and die in war. So I enjoyed this video as it would've been good "propaganda" for the people against the new amendment.