As we started talking about voting this week, it got me thinking about how to improve the turnout for younger voters. Vote16 USA is a really cool initiative that brings awareness to the youth electorate. They start campaigns across the US to lower the voting age to 16 in school board and municipal elections in different cities. Their initiative is all rooting in making voting a habit, beginning in your teen years. Voting is a habitual action, so the earlier it is ingrained in your system, the more likely you are to continue voting. With the rise of youth-led movements, such as March for Our Lives and the Fridays For Future, it is very clear that students have a stake in the game and should be heard by politicians. One of the final reasons for the push for the Vote16 initiative listed on their website is that lowering the voting age will push for better civic education in schools and ultimately boost overall civic engagement amongst students. Progressive cities like San Francisco and Berkeley have even put their local Vote16 initiatives on the 2016 ballot. ACA 8 was being discussed earlier this school year in hopes of lowering the voting age to 17 in all elections within California. What are your opinions on lowering the voting age? Do you think 16/17-year-olds are prepared or responsible enough to vote?
I think this is a cool idea but I disagree that the voting age should be lowered. Though many teens are engaged and interested in politics and should have a stake in decisions that affect their lives, at 16 and 17 values are almost always influenced by parents. At 18 for most, high school is over or almost over and teens can live on their own and go to college. I think real life experience away from home is important for people to discover their real values without peer and parent influences. As someone whose young for my grade, I won't be able to vote even though I really want, but I don't believe the age should be lowered. 16 and 17 is a time of poor decisions and growth, and I personally don't think we're ready to vote. That said, like you listed, March For Our Lives and Greta are great examples of teens who are still able to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddavenport/2016/05/25/no-we-shouldnt-lower-the-voting-age-to-16/
This was really interesting to read about because I hadn't heard of Vote16 USA before. While I think it is an interesting proposal and a creative way of potentially encouraging the young populace to vote, I don't think that it would end up having the positive impact some suspect. Similar to Kiran, I think that there is an age restriction to voting for a reason, both because of lack of autonomy in views and maturity in decisions. Beyond the large parental and environmental influences on younger adolescent's views of politics, teenagers are much more likely to be impulsive and not properly process information they are given before acting on it (source below). This could negatively impact their decision making and create yet another obstacle for young voters trying to contribute to politics. Do we really want biologically impulsive teenagers contributing to major political decisions? Also, I think that lowering the voting age might not improve civic engagement in youth as predicted. Those who don't know as much about politics might not feel prepared to vote and not vote at all rather than try to learn more or they might give into parental or peer pressures when deciding who to vote for(not truly representing their opinions). Overall, I think that, while this is an interesting approach, there are better ways to try and increase voter turnout among youth.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/11/why-teenagers-are-so-impulsive