What should the legal voting age be?

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Mr Trick

Mr Trick

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In this country its currently 18. But there's a push for it to be dropped to 16. I would be in favour of that since you can already pay taxes and get married at that age, so why not add voting to the list? Also I think it would be a good way to engage younger people in politics.

Feel free to discuss the voting age in your country and whether you think it should be different?🙂
 
I've voted twice in my life, after having been of voting age for 12 years. Once my sociology teacher drove me to the community hall, threatening to fail me if I did not come.

My point is: It's not the age; It's the person.
 
Puppet
Puppet
Agreed.
21-25.
Young peoples brains haven’t even finished developing yet. We adore youth in society but ignore that it is often clueless and reckless.

Learn, work, experience life outside of your parents house. Then vote.

Young people can be encouraged to be politically active or enthused without voting, teach them to think critically and responsibly first. Help them get out into society and the world so they can meet all kinds of peoples and different thoughts.
 
Skanky Vamp
Skanky Vamp
It always scares me when we agree.
The brain does not stop developing until you are somewhere in your twenties, but a teenager is just as capable of analytical thought as a 45 year old. If you were trying to teach them something new, the teenager would have a marked advantage. Teenagers are more likely to make ill adviced spur-of-the-moment decisions. Voting is not something you do on impulse.

More importantly, young people live in the world and have a right to be involved in decisions that affect their lives. People in their late teens and early twenties have jobs, get married, go to jail, have children, send their children to kindergarten, get sick, etc. The big talking point in my country right now is abortion, which is mostly a young woman's issue, so it would seem wrong to me to exclude women under 25 from voting.

Old people are sorted. They have their houses paid off and they've sent their children away. What do they need politics for? Property tax is all they care about.

P.S. Serving jail time in an actual jail, getting drafted and getting the vote should all be the same age.
 
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Taake
Taake
Then why not start women's voting age at menarche?
Adding: giving 16 year olds the vote seems like s terrible idea to me... and I went to an EU political high school program, we played mock-EU, we visited Brussels and Strasbourg and did the same thing there with students from other countries... we were basically trained to become EU-politicians. And even in that setting... most really weren’t that interested in politics at all or just not mature enough to think things through. (Myself included) And we had Chosen to participate in the program.

It is great to be young, and that’s why I don’t think kids should be pushed into positions of responsibility. Of course I’m talking in generalities, there are individual teens whom are very mature and responsible. But is it wise to organize society around exceptions? I think not.
 
I keep changing my mind on this, ranging from age 15 to 25 over the years. Overall, I think voting is so plagued by irrationality (note, I don't define that as voting different from me, I can understand reasons for voting different and consider it rational or understandable based on their perspective) that I find myself apathetic on the issue. Just the one thing I'd do is align voting age with all other age of majority (that includes decisions about sex, alcohol, driving, marriage, tobacco, etc).

In a more ideal world I'd like it so that people had to take a test to prove they at least read their voter's guides and knew the candidates they were voting for and against before they voted (in which case I'd be much more open to lowering the voting age), but I'm absolutely certain that the process would be corrupted if it didn't start out as corrupted to disenfranchise certain demographics and rig the elections. Politics is arguably where we humans play the dirtiest (and people may even feel guilty for not playing dirty, thinking the ends justify the ignoble means, in addition to the run of the mill unscrupulous for power and/or profit and/or ego). So I have to regretfully let that idea go.

I'd settle for teaching HOW to think than WHAT to think in schools for the kids (which has not existed in US schools for decades now, and is disappearing from our college campuses as well), and then maybe lowering the voting age (in which case I might have more confidence in their votes than in many of their elders). Even as it is, there are many kids whose intellects I respect more than many of their elders (of course they're not stuck in a bubble with all their time managed by adults--even then I can see potential in some if only they were allowed to develop it).

It would also be quite educational if kids learned how school boards got elected and the reasons for their policies (a dirty microcosm of the macrocosm in US politics), and if it didn't turn them off politics completely then it might make them much more discerning voters and political activists that we need (though the reporters also need watchdogs watching them). Politics affect them as well.
 
Taake said:
Adding: giving 16 year olds the vote seems like s terrible idea to me... and I went to an EU political high school program, we played mock-EU, we visited Brussels and Strasbourg and did the same thing there with students from other countries... we were basically trained to become EU-politicians. And even in that setting... most really weren’t that interested in politics at all or just not mature enough to think things through. (Myself included) And we had Chosen to participate in the program.
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Do you think older people would be more likely to enjoy playing mock EU?
 
Us older folks have bollocksed up things with their vote for long enough. I say we give 16 year olds a chance.

If the rules affect you, and you are capable of cogent thought, you should have a say. Sadly, much under 16, you really lack what it takes to really understand what policy and politics mean. By 16, you have the mental capacity, and if you went to a decent school, potentially you can be well informed about most things. i grew up in a political family, so I had all sorts of political opinions way younger than 16, but by 16, you're at least individuated enough to make a decision outside of the one your parents want (though of course, they will likely influence you). Mid teens is where most people start to think for themselves (parents often call this teenage rebellion). Instead of rebelling about booze, drugs, dating, music and tattoos, I think it's far more useful for kids to start learning about the horrid policies their 'representatives' are implementing.

Adults can be lemmings and vote stupid, why exclude teens? Politicians often neglect good youth and education policy because mostly old people vote. I've found that people who receive responsibilities tend to mature in the direction of those responsibilities (within reason). Give youth vote a chance!
 
It's tough. If you're old enough to be paying taxes and so on then you should get a say. However you don't have much experience to work with when you're straight out of school. We should consider a maximum voting age since people deteriorate mentally with age.

There should be a quick test at the ballot box to see if you understand anything about politics or have read a manifesto.
 
The Bronze said:
There should be a quick test at the ballot box to see if you understand anything about politics or have read a manifesto.
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Then, at least here, hardly anyone would be able to vote (which might not be a bad thing). From the small sampling size I am familiar with, I would say the majority of the people vote on whom they like versus their actual politics. There may be one or two stances they agree with the candidate on, on the surface, but that's about as far as most people get.
 
The Bronze
The Bronze
Exactly. It's the same here and it means the media then have too much influence.
Taake said:
Adding: giving 16 year olds the vote seems like s terrible idea to me... and I went to an EU political high school program, we played mock-EU, we visited Brussels and Strasbourg and did the same thing there with students from other countries... we were basically trained to become EU-politicians. And even in that setting... most really weren’t that interested in politics at all or just not mature enough to think things through. (Myself included) And we had Chosen to participate in the program.

It is great to be young, and that’s why I don’t think kids should be pushed into positions of responsibility. Of course I’m talking in generalities, there are individual teens whom are very mature and responsible. But is it wise to organize society around exceptions? I think not.
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I don't think its pushing them. A young person would have the right to opt out of voting just like someone older would. To me one of the dangers of not engaging them early is that there's more of a chance of them being disengaged to the point of not voting later. It would be a tricky balance I do except that.
 
Mr Trick said:
A young person would have the right to opt out of voting just like someone older would.
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There's too much peer pressure. A "young person" would not opt out, they would just vote regardless of whom or what policy they were voting for.
 
Spanky said:
There's too much peer pressure. A "young person" would not opt out, they would just vote regardless of whom or what policy they were voting for.
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Maybe, maybe not. In this country there's a lot of young people who are passionate about the Labour party and its current leader. Also its debatable if someone would be that much more ready to make a informed decision aged 18 than 16.
 
Mr Trick said:
In this country there's a lot of young people who are passionate about
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Cool. I wasn't talking about young people that are passionate though. In the quote you referenced, I was talking about young people that were ambivalent but peer pressured into voting, rather than "opting out." You still get that with 18 year olds as well.
 
Spanky said:
There's too much peer pressure. A "young person" would not opt out, they would just vote regardless of whom or what policy they were voting for.
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If there is peer pressure to vote, surely that would be amongst pensioners, because that is the demographic that actually votes.
 
Spanky said:
There is, and it's not.
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So, the less than 50 % of the age group between 18 and 29 in the US who actually vote, do so because they succumb to viscous peer pressure, but the old timers all turn up, because of an intrinsic sense of civic duty?

I'm sceptical.
 
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