The Twenty-Sixth Amendment
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment was established in the year of 1971 due to the draft of eighteen-year-olds. Many young people lost their lives, and families grieved over the loss of them that were drafted. Young, innocent people were drafted because there weren't enough soldiers to fight in World War II. Franklin D. Roosevelt, President at the time, once quoted, “ Old enough to Fight, Old enough to Vote.” The argument of this amendment was that eighteen-year-olds were being drafted and putting their lives on the line, but could not vote for the President of their country in which they were fighting for. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the age in which boys could be drafted and vote from twenty-one to eighteen and is …show more content…
Some of the young men that died had dreams that they had never been able to see come true, and careers they had never been able to pursue. Some of them were never able to vote for the country they died for. President Dwight D. Eisenhower quoted, “For years our citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 have, in time of peril, been summoned to fight for America. They should participate in the political process that produces this fateful summons.” Based on some research, Eisenhower was the first president to ever publicly voice his support to lower the age to vote. He believed that the youth a right to participate in voting, especially those who fought for our country. The age to vote was changed in response to many complaints made by citizens of the United States who felt it should be legal for an eighteen-year-old to vote. The age was lowered in the year of 1971, and it still remains today. In the year of 1943, Georgia was the state to first lower their voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. This was for state and local elections. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment was the time for any other amendment in history. There were five hundred new voters at a ceremony at the White House, and Nixon stated, “The reason I believe that your generation, the 11 million new voters, will do so much for America at home is that you will infuse into this nation some idealism, some courage, some stamina, some high moral purpose, that this country always