26th Amendment
Twenty-Sixth Amendment
Ratified July 1, 1971
Verbatim
Exact text as ratified.
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.
Plain English
A translation that drops archaic words but keeps the meaning, including the parts courts still argue about.
Section 1. The right of U.S. citizens age 18 or older to vote cannot be denied or limited by the federal government or any state because of age.
Section 2. Congress has the power to enforce this amendment by passing appropriate laws.
What this means for you
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 nationwide. Before its ratification, most states required voters to be 21.
The amendment applies to all elections — federal, state, and local. It does not prevent states from setting a lower minimum (some local elections in some places allow 16-year-olds to vote on certain issues), but it prohibits any government from setting a higher minimum than 18 for general elections.
If you are a U.S. citizen and you turned 18 before election day, you have a constitutional right to vote that cannot be denied because of your age. The mechanics of registration, identification, and ballot access are governed by state law and vary widely.
About
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment was ratified on July 1, 1971, after the fastest ratification of any constitutional amendment in U.S. history — three months and eight days from congressional passage.
The amendment was driven primarily by the Vietnam War. The argument was simple and widely accepted: 18-year-olds were being drafted to fight and die in a war they could not vote on. The slogan "old enough to fight, old enough to vote" captured the political logic.
The amendment's immediate cause was the 1970 Supreme Court ruling in Oregon v. Mitchell, which held that Congress could lower the voting age to 18 for federal elections but not state elections. The resulting patchwork — 18-year-olds could vote for President but not Governor in many states — was administratively unworkable and politically untenable. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment resolved this by setting 18 as the floor for all elections.