; (B) has the effect of denying those disenfranchised the due process and equal protection of the laws that are guaranteed to them under the Fourteenth Amendment ; and (C) does not bear a reasonable relationship to any compelling State interest. . (5) The age-based expansion of the franchise via the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970 was ultimately found by a strongly divided Supreme Court to be unconstitutional as applied to State and local races and constitutional as applied to Federal races. Thus, to ensure uniform election administration in Federal and State races, a constitutional solution was required. (6) A variety of reasons were advanced to support ratification of the 26th Amendment. The emerging themes included— (A) the value of idealism, courage, and moral purpose that youth provide in reenergizing the practice of democracy; (B) the increased political competence of young people compared to prior generations, due to greater access to information through standardized education and technology such as then-widely available television sets; (C) the increased responsibilities assumed by the group as they fought in war, assumed debt, and lived independently; (D) a general recognition of the Nation’s expansion toward a more inclusive suffrage; and (E) the stemming of unrest by encouraging institutionalized mechanisms to advance change. (7) In referring the 26th Amendment to the States for ratification, Congress invoked the Voting Rights Act and the principles protected by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, explaining that [F]orcing young voters to undertake special burdens-obtaining absentee ballots, or traveling to one centralized location in each city, for example-in order to exercise their right to vote might well serve to dissuade them from participating in the election. This result, and the election procedures that create it, are at least inconsistent with the purpose of the Voting Rights [A]ct, which sought to encourage greater political participation on the part of the young