This slogan reflected the mood of the public, and its leaders in the midst of the Vietnam War, the voting age was lowered to the age of 18, and thus the 26th amendment was born. The question was how long did it take to pass it. The Father of the 26th Amendment, Jennings Randolph introduced it to legislation eleven times -- in the U.S. House of Representatives and later in the United States Senate -- to lower the voting age, beginning in 1942 until its passage in 1971. Due to his persistence, 18-20-year-olds have had the opportunity to vote in eight presidential elections. Jennings Randolph met with youth groups regularly. As host of the annual National Youth Science Camp delegates and YMCA National Youth Governors in Washington, he provided inspirational discussion time for young leaders with senators from their respective states.
The Constitution makes no provision for the President to take part in the amendment process. But in the case of the 26th Amendment, President Nixon held a ceremonial signing of the certified document on July 5, 1971, inviting three 18-year-olds to add their signatures below his. No doubt Nixon's decision to publicly endorse the amendment was based on the popularity of the action--indeed, all states had ratified the amendment by July 1, 1971, and the recognition that adoption of the amendment enabled approximately 11 million new voters to participate in the national elections of 1972
 Dark_Lord64 · Mon May 16, 2005 @ 08:33pm · 0 Comments |
