Lower the voting age?

[Desperado †]

Why is there so much opposition here in Britain for lowering the voting age to 16?

Here are some reasons for lowering the age limit which I found to be mostly valid:

- No Taxation without representation - 16 and 17 year olds work and pay tax, yet we don't let them decide on the government that taxes them and spends their money.
- Equality of Expression - Not letting 16 and 17 year olds express their political views through the ballot box gives them and the rest of society the impression that they're views are not valid, not wanted and that they are somehow not real citizens.
- Engage young people in a lifetime habit of voting - The exclusion of 16 and 17 year olds fromelections is fuelling the disengagement of 18-24 year olds. The longer young people are denied involvement in the formal democratic process, the less chance there is of engaging them ever.
- Sent to war: denied the vote - 16 and 17 year olds can serve in the armed forces and have been deployed in areas such as Iraq, yet we deny these people the right to vote for the government that sends them to these places.
- 16 and 17 year olds are ready to vote - Not all 16 and 17 year olds will give an informed, nuanced or articulate view of politics, but neither will all 18 and 19 year olds or all 56 and 57 year olds.

[JP226]

God no*, that would be a horrible idea. If anything voting rights should be limited.

[Burnum]

God no*, that would be a horrible idea. If anything voting rights should be limited.

No, it shouldn't.

[antares24]

God no*, that would be a horrible idea. If anything voting rights should be limited.

^ this.

[Poach]

The main reasoning behind it is they're not considered mature enough to vote. By 18 a British person has or is coming up on finishing High School and moving on in the world, moving on to full time work, college or University. You make a good point with your arguments but you need to take into account that you take a certain leap of faith with your points.

Most 16 and 17 year olds know very little about politics and are completely disinterested in it. Granting them voting rights may or may not change that, but they're still largely not at the stage where they'd be able to take it seriously.

You can argue that many 18-24 year olds are in the same position, and one could then argue back that these are grounds to raise the voting age or change it to a qualification requirement rather than an automatically granted right. Not that I advocate this, but both sides of the argument carry equal weight, wouldn't you think?

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

The main reasoning behind it is they're not considered mature enough to vote. By 18 a British person has or is coming up on finishing High School and moving on in the world, moving on to full time work, college or University. You make a good point with your arguments but you need to take into account that you take a certain leap of faith with your points.

Most 16 and 17 year olds know very little about politics and are completely disinterested in it. Granting them voting rights may or may not change that, but they're still largely not at the stage where they'd be able to take it seriously.

You can argue that many 18-24 year olds are in the same position, and one could then argue back that these are grounds to raise the voting age or change it to a qualification requirement rather than an automatically granted right. Not that I advocate this, but both sides of the argument carry equal weight, wouldn't you think?

I'm 17 years old and am interested in politics (to an extent). So I'm not mature enough to vote as an 17 year old who gets money taken out of my paycheck for tax, but in 7 1/2 months when I hit 18, I'm all of a sudden mature enough to vote, but not now?

[DimondLight]

I'm 17 years old and am interested in politics (to an extent). So I'm not mature enough to vote as an 17 year old who gets money taken out of my paycheck for tax, but in 7 1/2 months when I hit 18, I'm all of a sudden mature enough to vote, but not now?

Yes, but how far can you go? So they lower it so that people 7 1/2 months younger than 18 can vote, someone 1 month younger than that will say the same thing, and so on and so forth.

[Каие]

I'm 17 years old and am interested in politics (to an extent).

Do you get involved in politics?

So I'm not mature enough to vote as an 17 year old who gets money taken out of my paycheck for tax, but in 7 1/2 months when I hit 18, I'm all of a sudden mature enough to vote, but not now?

18 is when you're a legal adult. How much do you earn per annum?

How about eh 14 year old who pays tax when he buys a product with VAT, consumption tax, on it?

[Francebunkerer]

Without bothering to read the preceeding postings, I feel that the number of politically interested people below the age of 18 is not all that large, even way above 18 a lot of people do not vote. I also consider the age of 18 to be a reasonable enough standard in terms of maturity for most people.
But, oh well, it wouldn't change a lot so I am somewhat indifferent.

[razor-]

No, I prefer the communists has very little to none influence

[roy34543]

its tough to say but..
Honestly i think most 16 and 17 year olds would get into the habit of not voting at that age, as opposed to voting and then doing it more often, so for that id say no. Besides 16 and 17 year olds tend to be more involved in popular as opposed to carefully though ideas.

[C-Rob]

well, at least they'd still be in school, within the long arm of civics teachers to make them actually know what the hell they're voting FOR.

[roy34543]

Kids would be vulnrable to stupid ideas that they dont understand.
Heighten the minimum wage, make downloading music and games legal, more holidays , and less immigration would all sound like wonderful and good ideas to kids at that age.
Not to mention even more ridioclous things like banning homework, and putting high speed wireless internet everywhere (not really a bad idea.. but putting it everywhere? It should be in heavily populated cities, not the coutnryside) for free.

[♔Jean-Luc Picard♔]

I always enjoyed the idea of service for citizenship from Starship Troopers (book, not movie) by Robert Heinlein. If you don't do anything for the country, why should you have a say in how it is run?

[Urban fox]

I throught voting aptitude tests would be a good idea, you can vote only if you have a degree intelligence and display some understanding of the myriad issues facing the nation and It's would-be leaders.

The half-assed reasons many people give for voting for a particular candidate honestly frightens me, some people just cant be trusted to choose good leaders. They just dont have the capacity to make good choices, this is true along the entire spectrum of political ideology.

I have more in common with an rxtreme right or left wing party supporter who has clearly defined and cogent reasons for voting that way, than I do with an ignoramus who votes almost on whimsy or their 'gut-feeling'.

[Phier]

This idea is always promoted by left wingers because kids are inherently stupid and haven't had real jobs yet.

[Shacklock]

Erm...I Have fully formed political views and I can't vote yet, doubtful that I would though as I disagree with large points most parties make, but hey I'd like the choice.

[Mr. Pink]

The :wub:s wouldn't bother voting while the sensible one's would.

I'm all for it.

[Barry Goldwater]

Hell no. I was sixteen not too long ago, and almost all the kids my age I knew were either idiots who didn't know what they were saying, jackasses who kept shoving their ideas in your face, or normal folks who just didn't give a rat's ass about politics.

The minority of sane, intelligent teens who were left? There wasn't nearly enough of 'em to matter.

[Mr. Pink]

Hell no. I was sixteen not too long ago, and almost all the kids my age I knew were either idiots who didn't know what they were saying, jackasses who kept shoving their ideas in your face, or normal folks who just didn't give a rat's ass about politics.

The minority of sane, intelligent teens who were left? There wasn't nearly enough of 'em to matter.

If these people were idiots and didn't give a "rat's ass" about politics, do you think they'd bother voting?