When Did Voting Age Changed To 18

Our Constitution recognizes that, as a Nation, nosotros are constantly learning. Our Founders built that recognition into its original pattern, providing a machinery to amend our Constitution as our Nation evolved. On July 1, 1971, our Nation ratified the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, lowering the voting age to eighteen. At the time, 18-, 19-, and xx-yr-old Americans were fulfilling their civic duties: paying taxes, serving in our Armed services, acting as outset responders, laboring in fields, factories, and service jobs across the country, and pursuing higher education. They were participating in our republic and all of the responsibilities of citizenship in all means except for i: they could non vote. A wide coalition, following in the footsteps of the suffragettes of the early 20th century and the civil rights activists of the 1960s, advocated, educated, and prevailed in persuading our Nation that those younger Americans were entitled to the right to vote. We also made a national commitment that the right to vote would never be denied or abridged for any adult voter based on their age.

My first race for the Senate was ane of the first elections in which 18-year-olds could vote, and the free energy and passion of Delaware's young people helped propel me to an unlikely victory.

Fifty years later, younger voters remain essential to our civic infrastructure. They are not just voting in our elections — including at record rates in 2020 — just winning them. Younger Americans are lending their talent and vision to school boards, city councils, and county commissions; teenagers are serving as Land legislators and mayors, and we are the meliorate for it.

Younger voters are not waiting to inherit the future; they are building the hereafter themselves. Young Americans have been on the forepart lines in the fight to defend the right to vote and aggrandize access to the election box for all eligible voters. Their borough engagement extends beyond voting — with young Americans leading the calls for racial justice, climate activeness, gun violence prevention, and clearing reform among many other issues.

Despite the progress we take fabricated, there remain persistent gaps in turnout between younger voters and their older counterparts. There is still more that we tin and must practice to deliver on the promise of the 26th Amendment. My Assistants has fabricated public service and civic education a priority, engaging younger Americans in our shared struggle for continual progress. I have directed Federal agencies to consider ways to make it easier to vote and to learn about voting, and to focus on the various ways that the Federal Regime engages younger Americans, online and off. Today's youth are more diverse than past generations — and laws aimed at suppressing voter turnout in Blackness and Brown communities also touch young voters. My Administration supports the For the People Deed and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advocacy Act to protect the central right to vote and make our democracy more equitable and accessible for all Americans.

Today, we honor the bipartisan expansion of voter enfranchisement. Let us go on our work to make the 26th Constitutional Subpoena e'er more meaningful in the months and years ahead.

Now, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United states of america of America, past virtue of the authorization vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the The states, do hereby proclaim July i, 2021, equally the 50th Anniversary of the 26th Amendment. I telephone call upon all Americans to participate in ceremonies and activities that honor the 26th formal modification of our national Charter, that recognize the contributions fabricated by voters enfranchised by its terms, and that work toward full participation of all who are eligible to vote.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I take hereunto set my paw this thirtieth day of June, in the yr of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.