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Constitutional Revision Study Documents of the Constitutional Convention Commission, 1968
Volume 138, Page 52   View pdf image (33K)
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SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS
 
 

States of America in Congress assem-
bled (two-thirds of each house con-
curring therein), That the following
article is hereby proposed as an
amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, which shall be
valid to all intents and purposes as
part of the Constitution when ratified
by the legislatures of three-fourths of
the several States:
"Article —
"Section 1. 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 States on account of
age. The Congress shall have power
to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
"Section 2. This article shall be
inoperative unless it shall have been
ratified as an amendment to the Con-
stitution by the legislatures of three-
fourths of the several States within
seven years from the date of its sub-
mission to the states by Congress."
Another resolution, S.J. Res. 64, sub-
mitted by the then Senator Hubert H.
Humphrey of Minnesota, was almost
identical in form and content.
Generally, public opinion polls show
a broader interest in the minimum vot-
ing age issue, and a larger percentage
of persons in favor of lowering the mini-
mum, in periods when the United States
is at war and boys of 18 are being
drafted. An American Institute of Pub-
lic Opinion (Gallup Poll) survey in
1953 revealed that sentiment to cut the
voting age to 18 had reached an all-time
high, 63 per cent being in favor, and 31
per cent opposed. Only once before,
in 1943 at the height of World War II,
had there been a majority (52 per cent)
favoring the reduction in age. The
trend of United States' thinking on the
issue was given as follows : 2
2 Washington Post, July 4, 1953, at 5,
col. 4.

 
 
Favor
Oppose
No Opinion

June 1939
Jan. 1943
Sept. 1943
Feb. 1947
Sept. 1951
July 1953
Aug. 1965
17%
39
52
35
47
63
57
79%
52
42
60
49
31
39
4%
9
6
5
4
6
4

The Gallup Poll further pointed out The most common arguments pro and
that if 18 year olds won the suffrage an con on the question of voting age are
additional 6,300,000 persons would be quoted or summarized in the following
added to those already eligible to vote. sections.
//. ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF LOWERING THE MINIMUM
VOTING AGE TO 18 YEARS
A. Partly because of the rising level of education, young people today are better
equipped to exercise suffrage than were past generations of youth.
52

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Constitutional Revision Study Documents of the Constitutional Convention Commission, 1968
Volume 138, Page 52   View pdf image (33K)
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