ABSTRACT
The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the US Constitution provides that "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." The Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified during Richard M. Nixon's presidency in 1971 at the time of the controversial Vietnam War. Indeed, part of the controversy surrounding the war prior to the passage of this amendment was that in most states, young men were eligible to be drafted into the military at age eighteen, but they could not vote until they were twenty-one years old. Regardless of what the electoral future may hold, it was made a bit brighter for the enfranchised youth of the United States by virtue of the adoption of the Twenty-sixth Amendment in 1971. The freedoms provided by the Twenty-sixth Amendment have not been fully realized by America's young people.
