1971: 18-Year-olds get the vote: with the Vietnam war as a backdrop, the 26th Amendment to the Constitution towered the voting age from 21

Nor did those who went to the polls vote as a united group: Among 18-year-olds, the vote was split almost evenly between Nixon, a Republican, and Democrat George McGovern. Nixon won re-election in a landslide, though he resigned in 1974 following the Watergate scandals. (In the most recent presidential election, voters 25 and younger favored Democrat John Kerry over Republican George W. Bush, 56 percent to 43 percent.)

WEAK TURNOUT

But turnout among young voters has consistently been weak (see chart), which means they have had a limited impact on the outcome of elections. "The fact is," Richard L. Berke wrote in 1991 in an essay in The Times, "the vaunted youth vote never became the electoral force that some expected."

In the 2004 election, groups like Rock the Vote, Declare Yourself, and New Voters Project worked hard to mobilize young voters.

"It is men and women my age who are fighting the war in Iraq and dying in it," one student, Amelia Hershberger, wrote to The Times. "Students who vote can claim a voice in a system that ignores youth concerns."

In the end, though, as columnist John Tierney wrote mockingly after the election, the results of these efforts were underwhelming.

"The unprecedented get-out-the-vote campaigns turned out so many young Americans," he said, "that their share of the electorate went from 17 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2004."

Who Gets to Vote in America?

It took two centuries before men and women of all races were able to vote in the United States. A look at the evolution of voting since America's birth:

> SUFFRAGE FOR SOME

Only white men with property could vote in most states. New Jersey briefly allowed women with property to vote but rescinded the right in 1807.

> THE 15TH AMENDMENT

This post-Civil War amendment said that race or status as a former slave could not disqualify anyone from voting. But it wasn't enforced throughout the U.S. until the 1960s.

> THE 19TH AMENDMENT

Passed in 1920 after a decades-long campaign by women's suffrage proponents, it extended the vote to women in all states; in 1924, Congress gave American Indians the right to vote.

> CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned literacy tests and other tactics used in the South to keep blacks from voting. Poll taxes were abolished the previous year.

The Youth Vote Since 1972

Young people have depressed
overall turnout in presidential
elections for the last three decades.

                                         Voter Turnout

Year   Presidential Election    18-24   25 & Older   All Voters

1972   Nixon/McGovern            52%        68%          55%
1976   Carter/Ford               44%        65%          54%
1980   Reagan/Carter/Anderson    43%        69%          53%
1984   Reagan/Mondale            44%        69%          53%
1988   Bush/Dukakis              40%        66%          50%
1992   Clinton/Bush/Perot        49%        71%          55%
1996   Clinton/Dole              36%        62%          49%
2000   Bush/Gore/Nader           36%        63%          51%
2004   Bush/Kerry                47%        66%          55%

SOURCES: FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION; CENSUS BUREAU; CENTER FOR
INFORMATION & RESEARCH ON CIVIC LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT