Vivek Ramaswamy proposes raising voting age from 18 to 25

Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy is set to announce a proposal that would raise the voting age from 18 to 25 unless Americans serve in the military or pass a civics test.

Mr. Ramaswamy is to outline the proposal, which would require a constitutional amendment, during an event late Thursday with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

“We want to restore civic duty in the mindset of the next generation of Americans,” Mr. Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital. “And how we want to do it is to say that, if you want to vote as an 18-year-old, between the ages of 18 and 25, you need to either do your civic duty through service to the country — that’s six months of service in either military service or as a first responder, police, fire or otherwise — or else you have to pass the same civics test an immigrant has to pass in order to become a naturalized citizen who can vote in this country.”

Mr. Ramaswamy said his plan would supplant the 26th Amendment, which in 1971 set the voting at 18 to align the privilege with eligibility for the military draft. He said the proposal will remind young Americans that voting is a privilege with civic duty attached to it.

Placing any kind of hurdle to voting would go over poorly among a swath of the electorate, particularly Democrats who are rushing in the other direction.

Several liberal-run cities have pushed to lower the voting age to 16 for local elections or allow illegal immigrants to vote in their contests.

Republicans often oppose efforts to lower the voting age, saying it is a naked attempt by liberals to amplify their power among young Americans.

Mr. Ramaswamy’s plan would spark an entirely new debate. He tried to head off criticism of the plan by telling Fox it is “fundamentally different” from Jim Crow laws that blocked voting from Blacks.

He said there is “no room for funny business like you had in the Jim Crow era.”

“We literally require people to pass that test to vote today,” he said. “If you’re an immigrant, I’d say the same thing applies if you’re an 18-year-old who graduates from high school [and] who wants to vote.”

“But you don’t have to do it that way,” he said. “You could also do it by doing a minimal amount of service to the country.”