July 5, 1971: After North Carolina ratified the twenty-sixth amendment on July 1st, 1971, the necessary three-fourths of the states’ ratification was obtained for the amendment to become a part of the Constitution. The Administrator of General Services, Robert Kunzig, certified its adoption alongside President Nixon. The amendment protects voting rights for U.S. citizens eighteen years and older.
Ratification by the states
Having been passed by the 92nd United States Congress, the proposed Twenty-sixth Amendment was sent to the state legislatures for their consideration. Ratification was completed on July 1, 1971, after the amendment had been ratified by the following thirty-eight states:[38]
Connecticut: March 23, 1971
Delaware: March 23, 1971
Minnesota: March 23, 1971
Tennessee: March 23, 1971
Washington: March 23, 1971
Hawaii: March 24, 1971
Massachusetts: March 24, 1971
Montana: March 29, 1971
Arkansas: March 30, 1971
Idaho: March 30, 1971
Iowa: March 30, 1971
Nebraska: April 2, 1971
New Jersey: April 3, 1971
Kansas: April 7, 1971
Michigan: April 7, 1971
Alaska: April 8, 1971
Maryland: April 8, 1971
Indiana: April 8, 1971
Maine: April 9, 1971
Vermont: April 16, 1971
Louisiana: April 17, 1971
California: April 19, 1971
Colorado: April 27, 1971
Pennsylvania: April 27, 1971
Texas: April 27, 1971
South Carolina: April 28, 1971
West Virginia: April 28, 1971
New Hampshire: May 13, 1971
Arizona: May 14, 1971
Rhode Island: May 27, 1971
New York: June 2, 1971
Oregon: June 4, 1971
Missouri: June 14, 1971
Wisconsin: June 22, 1971
Illinois: June 29, 1971
Alabama: June 30, 1971
Ohio: June 30, 1971
North Carolina: July 1, 1971
Having been ratified by three-fourths of the States (38), the Twenty-sixth Amendment became part of the Constitution. On July 5, 1971, the Administrator of General Services, Robert Kunzig, certified its adoption. President Nixon and Julianne Jones, Joseph W. Loyd Jr., and Paul S. Larimer of the “Young Americans in Concert” also signed the certificate as witnesses. During the signing ceremony, held in the East Room of the White House, Nixon talked about his confidence in the youth of America:
As I meet with this group today, I sense that we can have confidence that America’s new voters, America’s young generation, will provide what America needs as we approach our 200th birthday, not just strength and not just wealth but the ‘Spirit of ’76’ a spirit of moral courage, a spirit of high idealism in which we believe in the American dream, but in which we realize that the American dream can never be fulfilled until every American has an equal chance to fulfill it in their own life.[39]
The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states, bringing the total number of ratifying states to forty-three:[38]
- Oklahoma: July 1, 1971
- Virginia: July 8, 1971
- Wyoming: July 8, 1971
- Georgia: October 4, 1971
- South Dakota: March 4, 2014[40]
No action has been taken on the amendment by the states of Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, or Utah.