The 26th Amendment

By: Julio C-B and Jared C

Essential Question: How do the issues which prompted the creation of the amendments compare with the issues that are applied to today?

Introduction to the 26th amendment:The 26th amendment states the the minimal age to vote for the central government is 18. However the congress can not set a minimum age for state elections. The central government can not deny anyone with the minimum age or older to vote on account of their age.

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 the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation


Research questions:

1. How did this idea first start to arise?
A group of young activists from the National Education Association and their allies started to make this idea of theirs arise and make the dream a reality.The first rumblings to lower the voting age emerged in the midst of the Vietnam War with student demonstrations running strong.

2. Why did they lower the minimum age to vote from 21 to 18?
lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, allowed millions of young people to participate actively in the democratic process and have a powerful voice in shaping their political future, and since they lowered the minimum age of fighting to 18, they had to lower the voting age to 18 as well.

3. Who had the idea to create this amendment?
Richard Nixon, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lydon B. Johnson created the idea for this amendment.

4. Was there a group or individual against this amendment? If so, who?
No there was not. But now Ann Coulter wants to repeal it.

5. Arguments for this amendment.
The slogan "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote," gained popularity and some groups, including student members of the California Teachers Association (CTA)
external image old-enough-to-fight-button.gif
external image RockTheVote_Black.jpg
6. What are the states that have not ratified this amendment?
Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah.

7. What are the states that have ratified this amendment?
Connecticut (March 23, 1971) Delaware (March 23, 1971) Minnesota (March 23, 1971) Tennessee (March 23, 1971) Washington (March 23, 1971) Hawaii (March 24, 1971) Massachusetts (March 24, 1971) Montana (March 29, 1971) Arkansas (March 30, 1971) Idaho (March 30, 1971) Iowa (March 30, 1971) Nebraska (April 2, 1971) New Jersey (April 3, 1971) Kansas (April 7, 1971) Michigan (April 7, 1971) Alaska (April 8, 1971) Maryland (April 8, 1971) Indiana (April 8, 1971) Maine (April 9, 1971) Vermont (April 16, 1971) Louisiana (April 17, 1971) California (April 19, 1971) Colorado (April 27, 1971)Pennsylvania (April 27, 1971) Texas (April 27, 1971) South Carolina (April 28, 1971) West Virginia (April 28, 1971) New Hampshire (May 13, 1971)Arizona (May 14, 1971) Rhode Island (May 27, 1971) New York (June 2, 1971) Oregon (June 4, 1971) Missouri (June 14, 1971) Wisconsin (June 22, 1971) Illinois (June 29, 1971) Alabama (June 30, 1971) Ohio (June 30, 1971) North Carolina (July 1, 1971) Oklahoma (July 1, 1971) Virginia (July 8, 1971) Wyoming (July 8, 1971) Georgia (October 4, 1971)

8.Did this Amendment effect another Amenment?
It affected the 14th amendment which was the minimum age to vote was 21 so it canceled it out.

9.What impact did this amendment create on the united states?
This Amendment lowered the votining age from 21 to 18, allowing millions of young people to have a greater voice in shaping their political future.

10. When was this amendment radified and proposed?
The 26th amendment got radified on July 1, 1971 and proposed on March 23, 1971.


Current Event:
Author: Joshua Gans
URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuagans/2012/04/20/its-time-to-give-children-the-vote/
Title: Why It's Time To Gice Kids the Right To Vote
Date: 4/20/2012

This article compares diffrent views on whether or not to enable children the right to vote. The author first shows various positions of those who might be argue to the involvement of children in the election process. Reasons such as: (1) they are too young to make informed judgments. This type of view is similar to the idea that children do not have the intellectual capacity to make voting decisions. This same argument motivated the lack of involvement of women and racial minorities for decades and centuries; (2) children are unduly influenced by others, such as the media, teachers, and even family members. (3) very young children can't frame th issues or understand what the candidates are proposing. On the other hand, the upside of involving children would be: (1) there would be engagement on a whole set of issues to do with them and also with families; (2) they would be engaged early on and more interested in policy issue as to formulate their own views. The author provides an opinion that skeptical adults may be worried about giving children the right to vote out of fear that policy decisions would change in ways they were not comfortable wit, and it would give children political power, thus reducing that of the the adults.

This article relates to the 26th Amendment because, if the idea that children should be given the right to vote, became popular to the point where it gathered much support in the legislature, serious discussions would need to occur with regards to the proposal and ratification of a new Constitutional amendment that established the right of citizens to vote at an age younger than 18.

By: Jared Curcio


Curent Event:
URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/young-voters-2012-obama_n_2089789.html
Date posted: 11/07/2012
Title: Young Voters Help Secure Obama Victory, Passage Of Progressive Ballot Measures

In the 2012 elections it shows that young voters supported Obama more than Mitt Romney. This claim is supported by the fact that sixty percent of young voters who cast ballots chose to reelect President Barack Obama, against the 36 percent who voted for Mitt Romney. this may have been a big factor in these elections and may have even been the margin in which Obama won the elections.Without the 26th amendment President Obama may have not gotten the youth votes and therefor may have not won the electons. "It is because [Romney] lost the youth vote pretty decisively that he will not be the next president of the United States," said CIRCLE's director, Peter Levine. Also Obama won a greater percent of youth voters in against Goerge W. Bush in 2004.
Exit polls show voters ages 18 to 29 made up 19 percent of the electorate, a 1-point increase from 2008. CIRCLE estimates 22 to 23 million people between the ages of 18 and 29 nationwide voted this election. According to CIRCLE, 49.3 percent of young people who were eligible to vote participated this year, so imagine if all young votes that could vote voted. That could really make a bigger impact on the elections. Beyond the presidential election, young voters made a significant impact on ballot measures in non-swing states. This article relates to the 26th amendment because without young voters the outcome of electioins can be very different, and we could have different leaders in our country.