Should the Voting Age be Lowered to 17?

I think this is a really bad idea:

Arguments regarding the voting age have been raging since the Viet Nam war, when the rationale was if someone is old enough to die for their country, they should have a say in how it is governed. California's rationale, however, would be to pad the votes on the left - or at least mitigate loss of turnout from illegals who will be sent home.

Ironically, current science has found that the frontal lobes in human brains remain in a child-like state until about the age of 25, when they finally begin to develop. So if we are going to follow science, we should actually raise the voting age to 25.

 

No. If anything voting age should be raised to 26.

 

I remember back during the counter-culture movement during the 60's and lowering the voting age to 18 was one of their biggest things they whined about.

But was interesting and not really surprising when Congress lowered the voting age to 18 with the passage of the 26th Amendment in 1971 the vast majority of the counter-culture movement ( young liberals) three months later were still unaware that the voting age was lowered basically confirming they were all low information.

The voting age should be raised to 24, 26 or 28 years of age.

220 years ago a 21 year old was more mature than todays 21 year olds.

 

Don't lower the age, raise the IQ requirement!

 

Who should rule?

Legal voters should should only include toddlers, anyone convicted of a violent crime, confirmed psychopaths, and politicians.

Get it over with so we can move on to consider more rational systems of governance.

 

I'm sending an e-mail to Sacramento recommending getting rid of this guy. Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell,

 

It went to 18 because of the draft. It should be raised back to 21.

 

I voted for Kennedy as my first vote. I had turned 21 during 1959 so i recall well when the age to vote was lowered to 18.

At the age of 21, I still to this day consider I was a low information voter. I voted for D all the time. My entire family always stuck to the D to vote for. The D could have been Hitler for all we cared. I think in watching the Trump haters, this rule for D still exists. As some say, then the argument was you could fight, so why not vote too. That made a lot of sense to me then. CA will not allow drinking alcohol until you are age 21. So for CA to want to change the voting age to 17 shows me we are in the loony bin. We could legally drink in the Army on Federal bases. In Germany in fact, we got all taxes removed so a bottle of excellent Whiskey was sold to us much cheaper than in the USA.

Germans I learned by watching workers work, drank on the job. I saw them drinking beer for sure. Their beer is higher in alcohol content than is American beer. There it is about 12 percent alcohol.

 

Since people have concluded x, they should conclude y, because y follows from the exact same line of reasoning as x.

Sure they should, but what good does it do to point that out?

Why do people incessantly point that out?: Naivete

They think reason plays some kind of role in politics.

 

Why 17? Why not 12? Why not 0? Or why not raise it to 98?

My personal stance is that the whole concept of voting as such ought to be abolished. Giving women the right to vote was a yuuuuuge mistake. What they should've done was to take away the male vote instead and reach equality in the sense that no one votes.

 

We in CA vote on both local and state matters.

Question is what good does it do me to vote and keep losing?

When the Democrats hold all the power, are in charge of rules, are in charge of matters to vote on, what good does it do we who do not agree with Democrats? Sure we pad the numbers so they can tell how many of us voted to stop them, but it has changed radically for CA once Jerry Brown took over. I don't know who to point my finger at but it sure won't be republicans.

 

25 is the new 18, according to 'millenial watchers'. The real problem is letting idiots who don't have a clue as to what they're voting on or for vote at any age. Implementing basic civics tests would weed out a lot of those; separate tests can be given for all levels, state, local, and national; that way if one can pass at least one out of the three they can vote in the level they passed, and not screw up the vote in the other two while they study to pass those. Given the low turnouts by those under 30, there is no legitimate reason to lower it to 18 in any case; they simply aren't interested.

 

An IQ requirement would be nice, however some liberal judge would rule that it discriminates against blacks.

I'd say that 25 would be a good age to be granted suffrage.

 

I don't think it's an especially bad idea in theory - I think 17 year olds can make rational choices. But I also acknowledge that there will always be pressure from whoever should command disenfranchised demographics to give them the vote. They get more votes in the process.

 

Change it back, but you need a constitutional amendment to do it.

 

30, with an aptitude test.

 

I Think for my hobby 16 in ages will votings the next election....

 

Let them test it with local elections and see how it impacts them.

 

With 16 in ages more willing to vote US election in the next election....

 

Since politicians make decisions that affect literally everyone and everything, everyone and everything should be allowed to vote. Either that or no one gets to vote.

 

And we no longer have a draft, which influenced the lower voting age.
I agree that anything above 25 should be the age -- who can possibly have anything important to say until they have been on their own, working and paying taxes and trying to start a home and family.

 

High school was supposed to prepare students to vote through Constitution and American history classes. Once that became unfashionable, abolished or revised, we have generations of young morons who are very easily lead and are not rational enough to realize they are being had.

We have so many people on the board who refer to science deniers with disdain -- this is science that should be paid attention to. Frontal lobes - the part of one's brain that comprehends possible consequences of good and bad choices - remain undeveloped until about age 25.

 

I'd eliminate voting altogether because average people have no business making policy decisions, even indirectly... but if it must be kept I'd eliminate the age requirement and instead use a voting test that can be retaken annually if failed. The advantage teenagers have is history lessons are fresher in their memories, and our understanding of history today is less riddled with nationalistic propaganda. More life experience in older voters does not appear to translate into wiser choices in terms of sound policy. That has more to do with being intelligent in a specific way, something that could easily manifest before adulthood.

 

No but the drinking age should be lowered to 18 !

Actually, it really does not matter much. Might as well have 10 year-old kids voting. What difference would it make in the grand scheme of things. The level of education of the raging masses with respect to voting is on the level of a 10 year old anyway.

12 years of school and we manage not to teach the basic principles on which this nation was founded and we manage not to teach the basics of Philosophy (Logic, Logical fallacy, what constitutes a valid argument).

How is the voter supposed to wade through the daily cacophony of fallacy, false narrative and bad arguments raining down on them from the mainstream media and politicians when they to not have even the most basic tools ?

When Red and Blue are essentially the same (sans a few contentious issues to keep the masses fighting each other while being sodomized by an establishment controlled by international financiers).

Given that there is no legitimate third option - might as well let 10 year old's vote. You are going to get sodomized either way.

 

Not only a basic civics test (which- if properly conducted meaning understanding the basic principles on which this nation was founded as opposed to who the 22cnd President was or what the Mayor's name is) but also the basics of Philosophy (logic, logical fallacy, what constitutes a valid argument)

It is quite strange that through 12 years of school we do not even attempt to teach kids "how to think" (as apposed to what to think) and the basic principles on which this nation was founded.

Might as well let 10 year old's vote.