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February 13, 2008
The Sweet 16 Vote
Day after Super Duper Tuesday the New York Times brought this up:
"We should hasten the enfranchisement of this generation, born between 1980 and 1995, by lowering the voting age to 16.
Age thresholds are meant to bring an impartial data point to bear on insoluble moral questions: who can be legally executed, who can die in Iraq, who can operate the meat cutter at the local sub shop. But in a time when both youth and age are being extended, these dividing lines are increasingly inadequate.
Legal age requirements should never stand alone. They should be flexible and pragmatic and paired with educational and cognitive requirements for the exercise of legal maturity."
The argument: the decisions being made about the country today affect those 18 and under more than they affect those 65 and older. Why not give them the legal rights to decide who makes those decisions? In fact its the M.O. of The National Youth Rights Association to help more young people have a say in government. Heck, it even ended up on an episode of the West Wing back in the day.
Mike Connery over at Future Majority gives us the argument against:
"In 1971, the 26th Amendment was passed, lowering the voting age to 18 years old from 21... It didn't happen that way. Youth turnout that year was 55.4 percent (PDF). We look back at that now as the high point of youth turnout, but in 1972 it was widely regarded as a huge disappointment...
"There are better, more efficient ways to spend that political capital in service of increasing youth participation in American politics. The most important of these is election day registration -- the ability to register to vote and cast a ballot on the election day. Studies show that EDR, as it is called, can boost turnout by young voters by as much as 14 percent (PDF ). We've already seen the results of this in Iowa and New Hampshire during this primary season. Both states allow EDR and both received massively high youth turnout."
A bunch of my buddies over at the League of Young Voters agree all for the same reasons Anya's op-ed addressed.
"If a person can be tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison at 16, the state should make that person able to vote.
Its sensational, and can open up the conversation about the disparities facing young people.
One more thing -- it can give high schools students a platform to organize. The Feds reduced the voting age in '72. Are states able to do it?
Topics all addressed before here on Wiretap.
One even brings up a bill in the Pennsylvania legislature that would, if passed, allow 17 year olds who would turn 18 before the general to vote in the primary election.
Half a dozen people give me opinions on this -- some saying yes we should lower it, some saying no it'll be a waste and some not really sure why they were saying no....
What about ya'll? I don't hear your e-voices enough. Send me some of that hot comment action, will ya? Really... I feel like we never talk anymore...
Sarah Burris was raised in Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in English Creative Writing with a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. She covers young local, state and federal political candidates and their legislative agendas, rural issues, Green Jobs and the environment. She's a reporter for Rock the Trail -- a project of Rock the Vote and WireTap. Her writing has also appeared at Future Majority and Everyday Citizen.
RE: The Youth
Posted by: rafey on Feb 16, 2008 10:36 AM
I have been excited, pleasantly surprised and actually quite thrilled with the numbers of youth voting in this election year, regardless of what might be their individual politcal interests. That being said, I will add my personal view as I see it concerning the issue of whether or not to allow high schoolers the vote:When I was in H.S. (over 40 years ago), the curriculum required intensive courses in Civics, Government ( which included memorization of significant portions of the Constitution, etc.), Sociology and History. Far from being superficial in nature, these courses were taught by H.S. teachers who additionally possessed Ph.D.s or Law degrees (this was not uncommon in those days), and we were under great pressure to turn out well researched, well written, well developed essays and research papers concerning the history of American justice and injustices as well as concerning our nation's interactions with other countries over the previous 450 years, including its negative v. positive influences on global development. These research papers usually averaged about 35 pages in length and were more than superfically documented and footnoted (remember that we only had brick & morter libraries and no access to internets in those days, thus rendering investigation especially time consuming and difficult). I was also a member of the H.S. Debate Society so that appropriate methods of critical thinking was very much a part of the over all plan.
Although I remain politically active, I currently practice Medicine and a large prpportion of my practice is represented by a pediatric population, who, on average, has been very dissapointing in their ability to demonstrate a functional knowledge of history, our Constitution, geography or just plain ability to articulate a simple thought. I am not entirely certain how to account for this over all lack of insight or essential knowlege on the part if this past generation or two (that is quite another issue to be examined) but unless there is some implementation of truly valuable course work in our high schools designed to address this intellectual vacancy, I am somewhat dubious concerning what value the granting of voting privileges would accomplish. On the other hand, the very act of such a grant of the right to vote might well spur the necessary interest in obtaining the approriate knowledge and required thought processing, discussion and interactivity that I would love to witness among American youth. It might be just the spark that is needed to reignite and to inspire the kind of activity required to nourish the ongoing promise of a fully active and healthy participatory Democracy as was the hope of our founding fathers (and mothers). If so, I believe such consequential activity to represent the only real "cure" for that which ails contemporary America.