The Negative Effects Of Lowering The Voting Age

Before you completely dismiss this idea hear me out. This idea has precedent internationally counties Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom have extended voting rights for 16 year olds and all have historically better voter turnout then the United States. Advocates for lowering the voting age argue that it could increase government responsiveness and help reinvigorate our democracy. In state after state and around the world, allowing young people to vote in elections has had a real positive effects. Many states in our country have extended voting rights to 17 year olds to vote in primaries to nominate candidates for Governor, Congress, and the President. Lowering the voting age to sixteen would increase interest in politics among both …show more content…
This neglect must stop. Youth feel alienated from politics and politicians, lowering the voting age will include them in the process. The words spoken before the Senate Judiciary Committee supporting lowering the voting age in 1971 are as true then as they are now, “The anachronistic voting-age limitation tends to alienate them from systematic political processes and to drive them to into a search for an alternative, sometimes violent, means to express their frustrations over the gap between the nation’s deals and actions. Lowering the voting age will give them a direct, constructive and democratic channel for making their views felt and for giving them a responsible stake in the future of the nation.” There’s an argument that young people lack the intelligence to make the inform decision to vote therefore they shouldn’t, but advocates for lowering the voting age argue that if we let dumb adults vote then we should let smart teens vote. As fellow citizens in this society, every action or inaction taken by lawmakers affects youth directly, yet they have no say in the