Congress proposed the Twenty-sixth Amendment on March 23, 1971, to guarantee voting rights to citizens aged 18 and older.
The amendment emerged from a long campaign to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. During the Vietnam War era, supporters argued that young people who could be drafted for military service should also be able to vote in elections affecting national policy. The slogan “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote” became closely associated with the movement.
The Senate approved the proposal 94–0 on March 10, 1971. The House of Representatives then approved it 401–19 on March 23, the date the amendment was formally proposed to the states.
The dates are easy to confuse. Three-fourths of the states ratified the amendment by July 1, 1971, and it became the Twenty-sixth Amendment. March 10 marks the Senate vote, March 23 marks congressional proposal, and July 1 marks the required ratification threshold.