19711776 Club
Nixon certifies the Twenty-sixth Amendment; 10 million young Americans can now vote
The states ratified it in roughly 100 days, faster than any prior amendment, closing the gap between the draft and the ballot box.
By 1971, an 18-year-old could be drafted, sent to Vietnam, and killed in combat without ever having cast a ballot. That contradiction, distilled into the slogan "old enough to fight, old enough to vote," drove Congress to act. On July 5, 1971, Robert Kunzig, the Administrator of General Services, certified the Twenty-sixth Amendment's adoption, and President Nixon signed the certificate alongside three young witnesses during a ceremony in the White House East Room. States ratified it in about 100 days, faster than any other constitutional amendment, adding an estimated 10 million new young voters to the rolls…
