Change the Voting Age to 16

“250,000,000. That’s the number of people that are old enough to vote. 138,000,000 people actually voted. 58.1% actually voted. 320,000,000 people live in the US. 12,000,00 people are between the ages of 16–18. We could add 12 million eligible voters if we just move the eligibility age down 16.”

“These kids are smart. They are historically more intelligent than evry previous generation. They take classes that earlier generations would not even think about taking until college. Also, they have a much higher school attendance rate, graduation rate, and standardized scores than all the generations before and are only trending upward.”

“The attendance and graduation rates also indicate a growth in maturity amongst the younger generation. If they can be trusted with the maturity and responsibility of driving a vehicle then they should be trusted to vote for who they think should run their communities and their country.”

“Furthermore, this is their country and community as well. Why take their right to vote away just because they are still in high school? They should have an equal say in their communities as everyone else. They should still keep their right to vote for the people making decisions on their behalf.”

“So not only are they smarter, they are also more mature, and have the right to vote. All signs lead to this trend to continue for the better for future generations. These kids, young adults, can be trusted to vote,” I exclaimed very confidently to my empty bedroom.

“That is a fair point but these are just kids. Some of these kids still can’t even go to the doctor without their parents and you want them to vote? They do not show near enough responsibility to vote for arguably the most powerful person in the world. That is a huge responsibility and these kids are more focused on memes and social media than politics. They do not understand that their actions have consequences so they can not just go out and vote randomly.”

“ No matter how smart the kids are nowadays, you can not make up for the lack of maturity and life lessons learned through your teenage years that make you a more qualified voter. Kids that young do not pay attention to elections or politics. They know the basics but even if they were taught about policies they will have no idea how they affect the real world. Do you think a 16 year old girl really wants the talk about and make a choice about abortion? Or realize the effect that immigration has on the country and the people affected? And even if they did learn about them they would not have the world knowledge and life experiences to determine if they actually agree with it.”

“That leads me to my next point: These kids would more than likely just vote for whatever their parents did. They don’t have the knowledge to find an opinion for themselves so whatever bais is taught to them by their parents will have a tremendous impact on how they think. If we lower the voting age, that would just give families with children extra votes instead of actually increasing the amount of good voters,” I protested to myself.

“Actually everything you said is perfectly correct but when you’re 18 your still not there yet so the voting age should actually be-”

“‘Old enough to fight, old enough to vote,’” both sides of my personality said, interrupting the third.

I couldn’t decide which side of my head I wanted to agree with so finally I gave up talking to myself and just wrote it down. You decide for yourself whether you agree with me or other me.

Change the Voting Age to 16

“250,000,000. That’s the number of people that are old enough to vote. 138,000,000 people actually voted. 58.1% actually voted. 320,000,000 people live in the US. 12,000,00 people are between the ages of 16–18. We could add 12 million eligible voters if we just move the eligibility age down 16.”

“These kids are smart. They are historically more intelligent than evry previous generation. They take classes that earlier generations would not even think about taking until college. Also, they have a much higher school attendance rate, graduation rate, and standardized scores than all the generations before and are only trending upward.”

“The attendance and graduation rates also indicate a growth in maturity amongst the younger generation. If they can be trusted with the maturity and responsibility of driving a vehicle then they should be trusted to vote for who they think should run their communities and their country.”

“Furthermore, this is their country and community as well. Why take their right to vote away just because they are still in high school? They should have an equal say in their communities as everyone else. They should still keep their right to vote for the people making decisions on their behalf.”

“So not only are they smarter, they are also more mature, and have the right to vote. All signs lead to this trend to continue for the better for future generations. These kids, young adults, can be trusted to vote,” I exclaimed very confidently to my empty bedroom.

“That is a fair point but these are just kids. Some of these kids still can’t even go to the doctor without their parents and you want them to vote? They do not show near enough responsibility to vote for arguably the most powerful person in the world. That is a huge responsibility and these kids are more focused on memes and social media than politics. They do not understand that their actions have consequences so they can not just go out and vote randomly.”

“ No matter how smart the kids are nowadays, you can not make up for the lack of maturity and life lessons learned through your teenage years that make you a more qualified voter. Kids that young do not pay attention to elections or politics. They know the basics but even if they were taught about policies they will have no idea how they affect the real world. Do you think a 16 year old girl really wants the talk about and make a choice about abortion? Or realise the effect that immigration has on the country and the people affected? And even if they did learn about them they would not have the world knowledge and life experiences to determine if they actually agree with it.”

“That leads me to my next point: These kids would more than likely just vote for whatever their parents did. They don’t have the knowledge to find an opinion for themselves so whatever bias is taught to them by their parents will have a tremendous impact on how they think. If we lower the voting age, that would just give families with children extra votes instead of actually increasing the amount of good voters,” I protested to myself.

“Actually everything you said is perfectly correct but when you’re 18 your still not there yet so the voting age should actually be-”

“‘Old enough to fight, old enough to vote,’” both sides of my personality said, interrupting the third.

I couldn’t decide which side of my head I wanted to agree with so finally I gave up talking to myself and just wrote it down. You decide for yourself whether you agree with me or other me.