EXPLAINER: What is the 26th Amendment?

This year marks 50 years since the passage of the 26th Amendment, giving 18-year-olds the right to vote in local, state, and federal elections.

The right to vote has had a storied past in U.S. history, with only white, Christian land-owning males initially having the right to vote, before it slowly began opening up to all other Americans having the same rights.

In the 1970s, the Vietnam War became a precipitating factor in kindling the movement for younger Americans to vote, when the slogan, “old enough to fight, old enough to vote” gained traction.

Student Reporting Labs student Kayla Kissel from Cooper City, FL explains the complicated history of the youth vote.