Lower the Age Requirement for Federal Elected Officials Essay

Education is a noticable factor to consider when examining voter turnout. Those who are less educated about politics and their rights don't vote because they simply don't understand the imporatance of their vote in the first place. The more interested a person is in politics obviously the more likey they are to vote. Wealthier people are connected and constantly encouraged and reminded that their vote is important by community leaders and politicians. They also feel as if they have more at stake when it comes to taxes and public services, therefore they feel they have more reasons to vote. Whereas people with lower incomes are underepresented, disappointed and feel like nothing seems to change, the rich just gets richer and the poor gets poorer. The same applies for the age difference amoungst voters. Older people are more politically invovled than the younger voters.

If the voting age was lowered, this would help to fix that issue. As said earlier, 16-year-olds are much more likely to vote than 18-year-olds. Also, they are more likely to continue to vote later in life if they start earlier!

The legal voting age should be reduced to 16 instead of 18. We can work, we can join the army, we can even get married at the age of 16, but we can't vote at 16? We can leave school, we can move out of the family house and live on our own independently if we wanted to at the age of 16, but yet we are considered immature and not responsible enough to vote at 16, why?

America has been built on the idea that as citizens, we have the choice to decide what is the best for our country. Millions of Americans cast their vote every election day to make sure their voices are heard on who is going to run their country and what new policies they will bring with them. As stated in Anny Shin’s article, “Takoma Park 16-year-old savors his history-making moment at the polls,” voting is a, “valuable privilege,” in which many don’t realize. In the United States, not every is allowed to vote, only 18-year old citizens are allowed to vote. However the number of 18-year olds voting is very low and this has been an issue in the political for quite a while. The concerns and desires of most millennials are not being expressed as many are not voting. Many, like the city of Takoma have proposed to allow 16 and 17-year olds to vote as they believe that voting among millennials will increase.

I belive that before se set out to make major changes to the voter laws, such as changing the voter age requirment, new programes should be rolled out in an attempt to increase younger voter turnout fist. For example, use of social media to target younger voters. More political ingagment with a younger age group would help build on itself as polititions engage and take up issues that matter to yonger voters, thus incressing young voter turnout, and thus raising the value of younger voters to polititions seeking ideas and votes to be elected or re-elected. a prime example is how effective it was for Bill Clintons campaign during the 90's when he appealed to young voters by going on "MTV."

In the article, “Takoma Park 16-year-old savors his history-making moment at the polls,” by Annys Shin, many teens who are 16-17 years old can now vote during the election. The decision was made by the Takoma City Council that in Montgomery County Community, they are the first ones in the nation to lower their voting age from 18-16 years old. A group of 350 students from Montgomery Blair High School were granted the right to vote in elections and one of the student who got the right to vote, Ben Miller had said, “ It’s a valuable Privilege,” and he means that it is a great advantage that many 16-17 years old can now vote. Many young adults who are the age of 18 are most likely not a good age to vote because many of them are planning to leave their childhood homes. And they can lack of discipline and causes them not to vote.

In conclusion, young voters need to take an active role in government in order to continue one of the founding principles of our country which is that we are an democratically elected republic who is looking out for the interest of all of its people. The problem lies not within the older generation who have high turnout rates and are concerned with supporting issues relative to their stage in life. Instead, the burden lies upon the apathetic younger generation whose unique ideals, viewpoints, and experiences are being squandered because we are not voting. It is time for young Americans to step up to the plate.

Five reasons against 18-year-olds having the right to vote are, Numerous individuals contend that 18-year-olds are not keen and deceived. This stems from the secondary school dropout rate in specific locales and the measure of graduates who don 't wind up going to an organization of advanced education. In a great deal of locales of just Ohio, the dropout rate is fundamentally higher than different spots. For

The main point according Martin P. Wattenberg in Is Voting For Young People is that young people today do not vote during elections as much compared to other voting groups. Young people today are politically unengaged. “These state patterns of voting participation can be confirmed on the national level by the Census Bureau’s 2010 survey data. Among U.S. citizens under the age of 30 in 2010, only 24 percent reported that they voted.” (Page-188, IVYP) The low attendance of young people voting in Presidential elections indicates that young people do not care enough about politics to participate.

The younger generation are infamously known for having a low voter turnout for each election. Young adults have a loud voice when it comes to supporting their political stance but the majority of them don't vote so their efforts go to waste. We can see the statistics of voting habits from various age groups where the middle and old aged are exercising their civic duties far more than those who have just recieved this responsiblity. We do need to balance out the young and the old voters, but decreasing the minumum required age will not solve anything as 18 year olds hardly ever vote as is. We should not change the minimum voting age from 18 as it won't increase the demand for citizens to vote, instead we should focus on incentives to make it so people will want participate in the voting process.

Why vote? This is a major question among many young Americans today. America's youth, does not take the time to read articles, observe the news, or pay attention to presidential debates and campaigns due to their busy schedules. This creates two problems. First, young voters have little knowledge of current issues in the election. Also as a result, they are unaware of the importance of voting. Each presidential election stirs up an old controversy of whether to vote or not to vote. There are many young people who think that voting is not important; I believe that it is. By voting you are exercising your right as an American to voice your opinion, and young Americans need to become aware of this.

this low voting rate was attributed to a general lack of feeling of responsibility. As young adults age, marry, and become parents, their sense of community and responsibility increases, while their apathy toward voting decreases, (Abramson 116). Another reason for low voter turnout numbers for 18 to 24-year-olds is their generally low levels of party loyalties. Not having strong party ties decreases one's incentive to vote.

1. Only 21 percent of the voting eligible population in 2014 were young adults ages 18-29 (“why student voters matter”, 2016).

Old people are the most reliable voters for this country. They have the highest percentage of voters of any age group because they know candidates will focus on Social Security and Medicare. However, young people do not like to vote they think it is a waste of time. They are focused on college, social life, and cars, etc. If a lot of young people show up and vote, the politicians will get the message that young people have a voice just as much as the old people.

Younger people ages 18 – 24 have been less likely to vote in the past due to lack of interest, money, or time to go. Also, they just had a lack of information so they just didn’t care to have