How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?

Citizens must be eighteen years old to vote for President in the United States. This requirement is established by the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1971, which explicitly lowers the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. This change was largely influenced by the argument that if individuals were old enough to be drafted for military service at age eighteen, they should also have the right to vote. By specifying eighteen as the voting age, the amendment aimed to ensure that young adults could participate in the democratic process, particularly in elections that could directly affect their lives and futures. Consequently, the other age options—involving sixteen, twenty-one, and twenty-five—do not align with this established legal standard for voting eligibility in federal elections.