Pamela Hembrick

GP Research Paper

29 March 2017

Lowering the Voting Age

The article Behind Trumps Victory the authors Tyson and Maniam suggests that in the

most recent election, older voters (ages 65 and older) preferred Trump over Clinton 53%-45%.

This is roughly the same advantage for the Republican candidate as in 2012 when older voters

backed Romney over Obama 56%-44%. In addition, only 50.5% of the people in North

Carolina actually voted for Donald Trump. With these current trends, it is important to consider

lowering the voting age. When young teenagers turn 16 they should have the option to know

what is going on with their country. Children at the age of 16 start to become more mature than

usual. Also, when teenagers are the age of 16, many start working and start to pay taxes. If

kids are old enough to pay taxes then kids should be old enough to vote. Lowering the

voting age will also help teeenagers interact more with the world and getting them prepared to

become young educated adults. Young citizens are old enough to drive, work without restrictions

on their hours, and pay taxes-- they should also have a voice in their local government.

According to the researchers at civic group, it indicates that There is a trickle up effect on

civic participation. Parents and family members are engaged in civic life through the 16- nd 17-

year-olds in their household, with a positive impact on voter turnout for people of all ages

(fairvote.org). Even though some people believe that the voting age should remain at the age

of 18, there should be exceptions for teenagers to vote at 16 because it will encourage
greater civic participation, increase the number of voters, and ensure that young people

concerns are more seriously addressed by challenged decision makers.

Lowering the voting age is important to me because teenagers thoughts matter too. Voting

age give teens a more serious look on life. The age of 16 gives teens a better look into becoming

a young adult. Teenagers are now at the age where they should start interacting with the public

and having a say on who they believe should be president. Although people feel that 16 year olds

shouldnt have the right to vote, other people prefer 16 year olds to vote. As stated above

teenagers pay taxes, work hours they want, they should have the right to vote and have a say on

who should help the United States as a president. Also, Allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in

local elections will enable them to vote before leaving home and high school, and establish a

lifelong habit of voting.

In the US today, people 30 and under are terrible when it comes to showing up on

election day. According to the National Youths Rights Association and advocacy of organization

shows that teens cast ballots more now than any other time. Teens are more informed and are

even expressing their views that are independent from their parents. Lowering the voting age

may not just cause young teens to interact with the public and press but it give young teens a

chance to see the life that 18 year olds and older have to go through just to register to vote.

Young teens are disenfranchised because the government will not allow young teens to have a

say in who should help their country. People believe teenagers are not mature enough to handle

something as serious as this. When a teenager hits the age 16 the become dependent well some

and majority have to go get a job and help their parents. I feel if a teenager is able to work and
pay taxes a teenager is reaching his/hers mature stage and should be able to interact with the

press and public an have a say who become president.

Teenagers should have the right to vote at the age of 16 because it allows teenagers to

interact with the press and the public. Teenagers should have a say in what happens in the US.

Before teenagers reach the age 16 they have the mindset of social media and drinking and

smoking. Teenagers also no when it's time to mature. Allowing teenagers to interact more with

people more challenged can help them in the long run. Well educated teenagers can show a

different level of maturity. Having teenagers have the right to vote at the age of 16 can make the

percentage of voting go up. Lowering the voting age would be most best because teenagers

should have a say on what's going on with their community. Teenagers being allowed to vote

when they become 16 have a lot of responsibility. Allowing teenagers to vote at the age of 16

shows a well educated teen. Teenagers voting will increase the percentage of people that actually

vote.

Increasing the number of voters. If teenagers are allowed to vote the numbers of voters

would increase. Voters age 65 and older still rate almost 30 percentage points higher than 18- to

24-year-olds. By looking at the voting age group percentage, voters that are age 65 and older

takes the time to actually get out there and save their community. According to the graph from

2016 in the US Population from ages 18 to 24 46.6 percent people did not vote. Twenty-five

point six percent voted for Hillary Clinton while 25.5 percent voted for Donald Trump.

Teenagers should be able to vote at the age of 16 to help the voting percentage increase. Adults

from ages 65 and up have the higher voting percentage because teenagers are not allowed to

vote. Giving teens the right to vote will help the voting age percentage increase but also it will
help teenagers interact with the press. There are millions of teenagers out there from ages 16 and

up that would love to help their community and help choose their president. The voting

percentage could increase by 26 percent because (231,556,662) people did not vote as

determined by the 2016 election project stated. Allowing teenagers to vote it will instill the

importance and value of voting. Consider it this way, children are taught to brush their teeth

early, they are taught healthy eating habits early, and society attempts to teach children how to

make good decisions early, so why not teach children the value of voting early? This can begin

by reducing the voting age to 16. Many elementary schools across the nation push for kids voting

stations and most voting polls have a voting poll set up for young kids to practice voting. This

demonstrates the importance of embedding those practices at a young age. So why not place the

value of voting and being a citizens with young adults? Again, if teenagers are allowed to vote

the voting percentage would increase. This would allow teenagers to have a forum to express

their political and community concerns and to become involved.

Lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 would ensure that young peoples concerns are

more seriously addressed and thus gives them a greater stake in political discourse. Teenagers

around the world living in countries at different stages of development and in different social

economic situations would be able to participate in political decision making. The General

Assembly urged Governors to partner with the United Nations and civil society to develop more

effectively and to address the problems of young people in the twenty-first century and to boost

the opportunities for their participation in society. Youth policies around the world are driven

with a negative stereotype. For example, 200 million of the world's youths are living in poverty ,

eighty-eight million are unemployed, one hundred-thirty million are illiterate, and ten million are

living with HIV/AIDS as determined by the United States Nations. Who better to address these
issues than the mere people who are affected by these statistics? Listening to teenagers

concerns can help adults understand what the teenagers are going through, which is a major

portion of our countrys population, and listening to teens will will give greater insight from the

teens perspective. Teenagers may be concerned about why voting is really serious to people that

actually vote. Teenagers need a head start to vote so it can give them a more serious look on the

decisions made in this country and in the community.

For instance, giving teenagers a program to visit once or twice a week will give teenagers

a chance to interact with the adults and ask more serious questions. Why aren't teenager concerns

taken seriously? Consider this, for many years, the school curriculum discusses various aspects

of history including civics and economics. In addition, to just teaching this material, why not

allow teens to participate in the very subject they are learning about? Giving teenagers a chance

to talk in a small session could help out with the teenagers concerns. If teenagers are taken

serious it makes the teenagers feel more welcomed and accepted instead of making them feel

uncomfortable with their surroundings. Teenagers concerns are not taken seriously because some

people feels teenagers are not mature enough. Listening to teenagers thoughts and concerns are

important because not just adults go through things. No matter how old you or or how you was

raised everybody thoughts and concerns should be taking serious. So again why aren't teenagers

concerns not taking serious?

In conclusion, lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 will be beneficial to the country as

a whole. Even though some people believe that the voting age should remain at the age of

18, there should be exceptions for teenagers to vote at 16 because it will encourage greater

civic participation, increase the number of voters, and ensure that young people concerns
are more seriously addressed by challenged decision makers. On the other hand some people

say do not lower the voting age because they feel teenagers are not mature enough to understand

the power of voting. This perspective is wrong because teenagers start to work at the age of 16

and learn the power of paying taxes. Teenagers can drive, pay taxes, and work. Teenagers have a

lot of responsibility when they become 16 and for that reason teenagers should be able to vote

because teenagers are at the age where they start to mature. As stated before lowering the voting

age will allow teenagers to become more politically aware, will give them the chance to learn the

decisions that the government is making, a chance to understand how these decision affect them,

and the opportunity be apart of that influential voice. Why not lower the voting age?