Saturday, November 1, 2008

Should the voting age be lowerd to sixteen?

While there are some pretty convincing arguments as to why the voting age should be lowered, such as the fact that "there is no magical transformation one undergoes when one turns eighteen," I'm going to have to say that I do not think the voting age should be lowered, at least not without some preparatory testing in lieu of being two years underage. I know there are probably a lot of uneducated adult voters out there who might vote for the wrong reason, or maybe not vote at all, but I don't think lowering the voting age is really a fair add-on to this problem. I think it would be odd to have the voting age be sixteen, but the legal age to still be eighteen. It just wouldn't make much sense to me. While I would love to be able to vote and feel pretty educated on the subject, and I know some of my peers feel the same way, it doesn't mean that ALL sixteen and seventeen year-olds should be allowed to vote. Then again, I'm not sure if testing to see if one is "ready" to vote at that age is a good choice either because then it's kind of reverting back to old ways in making African-Americans take tests to vote (knowing full well the majority of them simply would not pass).

The best thing to do is to leave the voting age at 18. This, I think...well, I hope, is enticing those who are under 18 (like myself) to get involved in politics in every other way possible.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Its nice to see someone recognize the incompetence of the average 16 year old at voting for a presidential elections. Although there are also many 18+ voters that are voting for the wrong reasons or on false information. While I dont think their is a major transformation that you undergo when you turn 18, you do become a legal adult and so you know the actions you make have harsher consequences. You could argue that you dont become any wiser at the age of 21 and many people drink before that age. I think the reason for 18 being the voting age is thats when you go off to college or get a full time job which you work continuously. Therefore, it is then that the government is affecting you much more than at the age of 16.