The first benefit of changing the voting age to sixteen is it would further political interest. Once I turned eighteen, I started paying a lot more attention to politics. I wasn’t nearly as interested in the 2012 election as I am now about the 2016 election. If the voting age was changed, then we would find more and more high school students informed in American government and politics. Even though there is a low turnout of young voters as it is, I feel lowering the age would almost force teenagers to at least pay some attention to politics. Johannes Bergh in her study “Does voting right affect the political maturity of 16- and 17-year-olds? Findings from the 2011 Norwegian voting-age trial?” asked 16-17 year olds and 18-year olds how interested …show more content…
The almost similar interest in politics also shows that 16-year-olds should be able to vote if they have the same amount of interest as 18-year-olds. Bergh explains her study, “When looking at political interest, there is no apparent effect of the trial. The difference in political interest between the age-groups is not evened out when the voting age is lowered to 16. The differences are statistically significant (p .05)” (95). This shows that if they wont become more interested, it is because they are already just as interested in politics as 18-year-olds who vote. Ian McAllister in his article, “The politics of lowering the voting age in Australia: Evaluating the evidence” comments on the political involvements of youths, “the alternative view is that youth engagement is traditional forms of political participation is undoubtedly declining, but involvement in non-electoral forms of participation is undoubtedly declining, but involvement in non-electoral forms of participation such as protest, social media and online petitions is increasing (Martin 2012b; Vromen 2003” (McAllister,
The young as well as the older people of Canada seem to be in a deadlock. The question of if the federal government should or should not lower the voting age is a question debated surely around the dinner tables of families in Canada, as well as in the ranks of the government. Some people even suggest that the age needs to be raised. What would make people want the voting age to be lowered to an even lower age than the young adult age of 18? On the other hand how can the youth of Canada who have their own individual views be able to make a difference without being able to vote? Both sides provide for an intriguing look into the facts and resolutions for an appropriate way to either change the voting age or keep
Why? It will give politicians a real true reason to respect the desire of the adolescents wanting to vote. Lowering the voting age could and would be a great idea. This is why the government should consider lowering the voting age to 16 .So young adults, teenagers and adolescent whatever you may call them. Get a chance to choose the right politician in the political election to help then now and later in their future life ahead of them to help them be
British dramatist Shakespeare once said that there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes. Through the ages, controversies about voting age have not quieted down, and there are more and more different opinions about voting age like it should increase to 21, or it should decrease to 17 or 16, even 13. Like a coin has two sides, each opinion has both advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, I prefer the voting age to be 18 in the United States. Teenagers who are 18 years old are independent enough to make their own decisions, and they should have the vote right as other adults do.
By allowing 16 years old to vote, it could make them more interested in politics. Before voting, they will want to investigate about each party and the policies they have. Which in turn could will make them more interested in politics. There is an urgent need for younger people to get involved in politics and by lowering the voting age this could create a new wave of politicians. By allowing 16 years old to vote, schools will have to teach politics in school and go into greater depth about politics.
I am a huge supporter of the 26th Amendment. At the age of 18, a young adult can make some naïve and immature decisions. But that does not make a case for changing the Amendment. At 18 you can voluntarily join the Military, or any other organizations. When you are 18, you can acquire debt, rent just about anything (not including a car), start a business, and get married on your own free will. So at 18 you have these privileges, the only thing you can’t do is drink legally. An 18 year old should be allowed to vote because there is legislation and laws that can directly affect them. Why would they not be allowed to vote, if these new laws and legislation directly affects them, they pay taxes, pay debts, and fines like everyone else.
If maturity is the issue, it important to take into account that 16 year olds are just as informed as 18 year olds (in some cases more so). In fact there could be many 20, 30, or even 40 year olds who are irresponsible, do not make informed decisions and are clueless; this does not mean we deny them the right vote. Just because they are older necessarily does not mean they know everything in detail about politics because they have more life experience and can make better informed judgements than a 16 year old.
In my position I agree to lower the age of voting to 16-17 years old because it can raise up the percentage of voting. Many people are not voting because they don't believe it can help them and their community also with the support from 16-17 years old, it can show a huge difference on how the votes are increasing little by little. Also it can gives them experience on what's the voting like. Once they get older, they will know what to do because they registered the vote in an
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.
I personally don't have much political experience because my parents don't vote. Therefore I don't really care much about voting. If kids aren't exposed to politics or informed on why they should vote then I don't believe decreasing the voting age will make much of a difference. If 18-year-olds do not have a high number of votes I don't see how kids younger than that would make a difference. I don't believe lowering the age is solution to increases voters. I think we should focus more on teaching the importance of voting and why it makes a difference so that when they do turn 18 they will understand why they should vote and by understanding that I believe they will be more likely to
There have been many advantages and disadvantages to the change in the age requirement to vote. Currently the biggest disadvantage has been the voter participation percentage, followed by the demographic of the voters. With the age requirement being lowered to 16 the negatives may out weigh the postive.
Giving suffrage to people 16 and older would have a net negative effect; the age of suffrage should stay at 18. Not only would it lower voter percentages, given that, as stated in paragraph 3 of "Keep the Voting Age at 18," "only 38% of voters in the 18 - 24 age group voted in 2012," and the younger the person, the less interest they have in politics, but it also would skew the results unfairly. The news media and even some teachers have a tendency to project their personal views, whether implicitly or not, left or right, onto their viewers and students, instead of reporting the facts and both sides of the argument and letting their viewers and students decide for themselves. I've seen examples of this in my schools, where teachers will give a student a failing grade for
I think that lowering the age to vote would have a bigger turnout then keeping it at 18. The only thing to disprove this argument is, ( younger voters show a lack of civic responsibility). Athough 16 is a young age to vote , it does not mean they dont have a clear openion on how they want to live. If you think about it, two years later their an adult and now living their life with a presadent that they had no say over.
Keeping the age won't really change much but people believe at the age of 18 you are mature enough to make these decisions and they have come up with other ways to bring up the number of voters. A suggestion was letting people vote from home. Only 38% of voters from age 18-24 voted in 2012. These people believe younger voters do not have the civic responsibility. This group of people think we should start thinking of ways to expand the way we vote.
People are arguing a point that is pretty insignificant to the political world . i think lowering the voting age would be harmful to voters because 16 year olds are typically not worried about politics . Changing the voting age by any amount would not be fair to the percentage of younger voters that are active from ages 18- 24 ( The u.s cencus bureau reported 36% of them voted in 2012 ) , But there would be a even less percentage of active voters if the voting age was reduces by 2 years from 18 to 16 . Im betting maybe a third of 16 year olds would be interested in voting and presidential elections are held every four years and their would be a healthy portion of 16 year olds that would turn 18 when it is time for election . So why
Have you ever had a time when you felt that your voice was ignored? Legal Voting age should be lowered to the age of 16. As a young Canadian citizen there has never been a greater time to change the legal voting age to 16. How come we let unknowledgable adults vote, but not smart engaged teens. Teen voices get blocked out while the adults keep talking. If we as a society change our voting age to 16 many positive outbursts will occur, For example, Voter turnout will increase, teens will be more engaged in politics and the world around them, and finally young people will earn a chance to speak up and say who would run their future the best. All of these will happen and most likely even more.