Jonathan Becker
Executive Vice President and the Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College-
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and prohibited voter discrimination based on age. When it was enacted in 1971 with strong bipartisan support, President Nixon emphasized that “America’s new voters, America’s young generation” would bring “moral courage” and “a spirit of high idealism” to the country as it approached its bicentennial.