Democracy? More Like Demo-crazy! Shall We Lower the Voting Age to 16?

In 1971, the twenty-sixth amendment lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen because young men in the army were denied the vote, yet still being forced to fight in the army. This March, a Silicon Valley legislator proposed a bill that would make California the first to lower the voting age from eighteen to seventeen, but the bill failed. Other states such as Florida and Alaska also have proposed lowering the voting age. However, neither have been successful. Despite this, if sixteen year olds are old enough and mature enough to be able to be driving on the highway or hold a paying job, how are they not responsible enough to have their voice heard in political arena? I asked a few members of  the PCS community about their positions on the issue.

First, I walked around and found people of all different age groups and asked them the exact questions; “What do you think about lowering the voting age to sixteen?” “Should people propose the idea?” “Why?”

As I found, the younger grade (seventh) was more likely to say that people should not lower the voting age–one student said that it would make no sense to lower the voting age because sixteen year olds are not adults, and so only adults should be able to vote. “I think that lowering the voting age is illogical. And I do not think people should propose the idea because people at the age of sixteen are not adults yet,” they said.

Furthermore, when I asked a couple of parents, I found that they agreed with the younger students, and also believed that sixteen year olds shouldn’t be allowed to vote yet. The part that made adults more able to vote is that they are knowledgeable about politics while sixteen year olds are not, and adults are much more mature. One parent stated, “ I don’t think that people should propose the idea. They may not be as knowledgeable as they should be on politics, may not be mature enough, and probably would not take voting seriously.”

Of course, I also had to ask a history teacher, Dr. Ruckle, and interestingly found that he agreed slightly with both sides. But would teachers be teachers if they couldn’t ask a good question? Doc Ruck said, “I’m not opposed to the idea.  Many sixteen-year-olds (and 17) work and pay taxes and participate in society, and they certainly are affected by public policies and laws etc. One question would be, could teens still living under their parents’ roof be independent enough not to simply ‘copy’ the politics of their parents?  Perhaps some research into that question would help here. Personally, I wouldn’t propose such an idea.  Because I think a more pressing idea is to figure out how to get 18-year-olds and other young people who have the vote already to vote.  18-year-olds only got the right in my lifetime, and yet they vote in very small numbers.  Older people vote in much greater numbers than young people.  Why is that?  We should figure that out first, before we worry about lowering  the voting age,” he had answered professionally.

On the other hand, in regards to my own opinions on the matter, this is my own answer to my questions: “I think that lowering the voting age to sixteen would be a great idea and people should definitely propose the idea because sixteen year olds should have a voice in their country’s politics. Furthermore, in most places, sixteen year olds are responsible enough to drive so shouldn’t they be responsible enough to vote in those areas? For places like South Dakota where children younger than sixteen can drive, it depends more on what other responsibilities people at that age have. And even some people in the UK want to lower the voting age to sixteen. To counter people who say that we shouldn’t lower the voting age because sixteen and seventeen year olds don’t know much about politics, some adults even vote when they don’t really pay attention to politics that much, so what difference would sixteen year olds make? Also, contrasting that sixteen year olds are not mature enough, if adults gave sixteen year olds the vote, then they may even start acting more adult because they would feel like they have adult rights. In addition, many adults don’t even vote at all, and the extra votes from sixteen and seventeen year olds would help fill in some voter turnout gaps. Websites such as ‘vote16usa.org’, ‘fairvote.org’, and ‘youthrights.org’ all support lowering the voting age too.”

Now that the questions are over, what other countries have a voting age of sixteen already or have people who want to change the voting age to sixteen? Well,  Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey all have a minimum voting age of sixteen already. People in the US have petitioned to lower the voting age recently, but the amendment didn’t pass, also people in the UK have even created a website for their cause (votesat16.org), because many of the sixteen and seventeen year olds do want to vote but are denied the opportunity.