The 26th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified on July 1, 1971, lowered the voting age to 18. This document shows the certification of the amendment by General Services Administrator Robert Kunzig on July 5th.
In a ceremony at the White House, President Richard M. Nixon also signed as a witness. President Nixon’s signature was unnecessary to ratify the 26th Amendment because the Constitution does not give the President a role in passing amendments. But Nixon ceremoniously signed it anyway, and he took the unprecedented step of inviting three 18-year-olds to also sign the new amendment.
