There's no reason not to let younger people vote
It’s hard to find a good reason why if you can work and drive at 16, you aren’t allowed to vote. An Ontario MPP is proposing to lower the voting age and while it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon and there’s no urgent need to change the voting system, the idea has considerable merit.
Most of the arguments against younger voters are based on the assumption that teenagers aren’t smart enough, experienced enough or engaged enough to cast a ballot. But a lot of adults fit that description as well. And there are certainly lots of youth who are active and engaged on political issues, who care about their communities and who volunteer for or even lead important initiatives. Look at the teenagers in the U.S. fighting for better gun control.
Lowering the voting age would give young people more of a say in the future and a reason to get more engaged. Ultimately I don’t see any reason why allowing a 16-year-old to vote would cause any harm to our democracy. If anything, it might improve it.
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CLS Worker Mental and Physically Disabled Assistant
6 年The human brain is not fully developed until a person is almost 30. While I will be the first to admit that a 16 year old is capable of far more than they are allowed to do, our society is based around treating them like children. And if we are going to treat them like children and not adults, then they should not be giving the right to vote. The only people that think this is a good idea are the ones that realize how easily manipulated these kids are and want to use that to get the votes they need.
Public sector security
6 年If they're too young to be trusted with a firearm (or Tide pods) they're too young to vote. I'm actually not entirely opposed to raising the age to buy a gun to 21 IF the legal age of adulthood is moved to 21. If youre too young to buy a gun, drink alcohol or go to a casino, youre too young to vote or enlist in the service and potentially die for your country. If youre eating Tide pods or trying to knock out strangers for kicks, no, you have no business voting. There needs to be an accross the board standard here. Anything that prohibits you from excersising any constitutional rights (especially the 1 that it clearly states shall not be infringed) should prohibit them all. I also think there should be a common sense approach to reinstating ALL constitutional rights lost (voting, gun ownership, etc) such as "good behavior", 5 years after completion of a disqualifying misdemeanor, 7 for a felony, without incident, all rights should be reinstated. Give people clear incentive to turn their lives around if they screw up. Bump the legal age of adulthood accross the board to 21 and institute a rehabilitation program reinstating rights, removing marks from a record so people can gets jobs etc I think would make a big positive change.