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Show .mrprtain for 18-year-old y Consequences uncertain v BY KURT NUTTING Chronicle Staff After years of struggle, an estimated esti-mated 11 million Americans between be-tween the ages of 18 and 21 (about 62,000 in Utah) will be able to vote in the 1972 national elections. The United States Supreme Court ruled on Dec. 21 that an amendment to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 lowering the voting age to 18 was constitutional constitu-tional for federal elections. In the 1966 case of Katzenbach vs. Morgan the Supreme Court had ruled that Congress has a wide latitude in striking down state laws that violate tire equal protection pro-tection of the laws" section of the 14th Amendment. An aide to Senate Majority Whip Edward M Kennedy (D-Mass.), Carey Parker, reasoned that Congress could declare de-clare that since those between 8 and 21 are treated like adults under many other laws, particularly par-ticularly the draft, denying them the vote was discrimination and thus in violation of the 14th Amendment. Amends Voting Rights Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-Montana), picked up the idea and amended the exten sion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (which in five years has added oTl million blacks tc -Soujrn voting rolls), to include such a 'provision. After seven days of debate the Senate passed ti e ex tension by a vote of 64-17 on March 13, 1970. Returned to the House of Representatives, Rep-resentatives, civil rights and labor union forces led by the NAACP and the AFL-CIO pushed for acceptance ac-ceptance of the Senate amendments amend-ments rather than sending the bill to a conference committee dominated by conservatives. Speaker Complies The 78-year-old speaker of the f house, John McCormack of Massachusetts, Massa-chusetts, declared that "Nothing would make John McCormack happier than to see this resolution adopted," and considered the 18-year-old vote the crowning achievement of his long political career. On the key vote, the House voted 224-183 (D: 165-66; R: 59-117) against sending it to conference con-ference and then passed the bill-including bill-including a 5-year extension of the Voting Rights Act, a 5-year suspension of all literacy tests for voting, a section requiring states to provide absentee ballots and the Senate's amendments for an 18-year-old vote for President and vice president-by a vote of 272-132 on June 17, 1970. Nixon Signs Bill President Nixon announced during the House battle that lowering the voting age by legislation legis-lation was unconstitutional (although (al-though he favored doing it by constitutional amendment); but if he vetoed the bill he would be accused of an anti-civil-rights bias, especially since the Voting Rights Act was due to expire on Aug. 6. He finally signed it on June 22 and asked for a speedy court test on the lower voting age before it went into effect on Jan. 1, 1971, as well as tests on the other new requirements. Although Attn. Gen. John Mitchell had said the provision was unconstitutional, he ordered a full defense of the law in court. On July 14 he asked the 48 states with voting ages over 18 to declare de-clare by Aug. 3 whether or not they would comply; 5 states said no; 22 were indefinite, asked for more time, or wanted to wait for a court test; and 21 agreed to accept the new measure. States Challenge Law The states of Indiana, Idaho, Louisiana, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia Vir-ginia and Wyoming joined Oregon and Texas and a group of five New Yorkers in challenging the new law while the U.S. Government Govern-ment sued Idaho and Arizona for noncompliance with the lower voting age, the 30-day residency requirement and the ban on literacy liter-acy tests. A three-judge federal court in Washington upheld the law on Oct. 2 and the Supreme Court heard arguments on Oct. 19 from the states and U.S. Solicitor General Edwin Griswold. separate elections-, for federal office two ballots would-. those 18-20 and j' with a third "b. allow those who L the state for 30 h President; two tration books to t separate or sp. voting machines. I of state, Clyde Ll'9( decision "lends ite 101 fusion for the sea, county clerks at: ' stration agents," ;V statement. fc lei States Mii.og la: Other specular more states would tfu lower their own vc. Vis while Sen. Edwatitw announced he wet: federal constitutkin in the 92nd Conga su Last June, Utah :in vin L. Rampton, t.ta: should move ahead its lowering the votins.su the lecal uncertain: an The decision was announced on Dec. 21. Four justices (Justices William J. Brennan, William O. Douglas, Thurgood Marshall and Byron R. White) agreed that denying the vote to 18-year-olds was discrimination prohibited by the 14th Amendment, while four other judges (Chief Justice Warren Burger, and Justices Harry Black-mun, Black-mun, John M. Harlan and Potter Stewart) said only the states have the right to set voter qualifications qualifi-cations under the Constitution. But the 84-year-old dean of the Court, Hugo Black, fudged. Congress Con-gress can regulate "the times, places and manner" of federal elections, he said and thus change election rules and allow 18-year-olds to vote in federal elections. But, he added, Congress could not deny states the right to set their own voter qualifications. Court Upholds Bill By 5-4 votes the Court upheld the 18-year-old vote in Federal elections (President, vice president, presi-dent, senator and Congressman) but struck it down in state and local elections. The ban on literacy liter-acy tests was upheld ip an 8-1 vote and the 30-day residency requirement for President was unanimously supported. State officials immediately complained that the Court's split ruling would create an administrative admini-strative nightmare. Some thought the state he would:. -constitutional ami;:1' legislature for the:"1 Jan. of 1971. & Of its prosper; v Speaker of the Hoi-S1 Howe (D-Murray)s.tc think they would! good," and "It's fc; now," after the Ct even for those t opposed it. In the session, a 1 9-yeaK : posal passed the f March 12, but was last day in the Sens-days Sens-days later during 4 scramble. Voters Against' In other states !1 have run up ag legislator sentiment young. The Wyora' ate, for example, ment to a 19691: bill providing standards of shall apply to!1 20-year-old voters a) able in military tire Nov. 1970 ": states turned do in refere'' Georgia and Ken voting at 18,Mo J chusettsat 19; a I and Nebraska (Continue"'' Court lowers voting age Together with the newly-enfranchised 18-20 year-olds, 22 million more people will be eligible eli-gible to vote in the 1972 presidential presi-dential election. Since the 1969 election was decided by about 500,000 votes out of over 73 million cast, it seems fair to say that the political impact will be large (Sen. Kennedy called it "a new era in American politics.") The Democratic Party will probably benefit the most: Gallup reports that "when a sample sam-ple of the 29 million non-registered voters is examined, twice as many are found to have Democratic Demo-cratic leanings as Republican," and the new law will make registration regi-stration easier for them. (Continued from Page 4) passed an 18-year-old vote in 1969 but it must be repassed by the 1971 legislature and approved in a referendum in 1971 or 1972. What will the political effects be of the Voting Rights Amendments Amend-ments of 1970 during the 1972 national elections? Many feel the impact of the 18-year-old vote will be slight, since young voters are traditionally moderate and do not vote in large numbers. Former Census Bureau head Richard Scammon says that the 3540 percent turnout of 18-21 -year-old voters found in Kentucky and Georgia in the past, extended nationwide, would not have changed the presidential results of any state in the 1968 election, although voters under 30 are more liberal and tend to be more Democratic Demo-cratic than their elders. In 1968 voters under 30 gave Humphrey 47 percent, Nixon 38 percent and Wallace 15 percent compared to the nation's results of Nixon 43.4 percent, Humphrey 43.0 percent and Wallace 13.6 percent. The reason Scammon predicts little impact is that only about 50 percent of the people under 30 actually vote, compared to about 70 percent in older people. Pollster George Gallup noted "an interesting sidelight to the issue is that the group presently pre-sently (1969) denied the vote has a higher average level of schooling than does any other age group in the population," and that "Gallup studies have shown that it is not lack of interest which keeps persons per-sons in this age group from registering regi-stering so much as residence requirements re-quirements in various states." |
