Voting Age Amendment

[ApatheticNoMore]

The current desire to lower it to 16 is because kids are more likely to vote as progressives.

On a national level, I'm quite sure the California prop would have no such effect, because there is no calculation by which the state isn't pretty darn blue (maybe a rare district? that could be changed by a few voters?)

I'm sympathetic to the rights of minors generally though so, and 17 seemed within reason.

[iris lilies]

I don't recall any handwringing at all but there may have been. When the voting age was lowered to 18 it was driven mostly by the idea that 18 year olds were being drafted and sent to Vietnam but didn't have the right to vote. Changing it actually required an amendment to the Constitution which I believe was ratified by the states in extremely short order and became law as the 26th Amendment. I was a senior in high school at the time.

So, I believe the difference between allowing 18 year old citizens to vote was based on the government conscripting 18 year olds and sending them to war without benefit of their representation, it's hard to argue against that. The current desire to lower it to 16 is because kids are more likely to vote as progressives. One of those things is not like the other.

Exactly! This is nicely said.

made sense back then, makes sense now.

[LDAHL]

Many minors have part-time jobs and pay taxes. Our country was founded on no taxation without representation. Anyone old enough to work and pay payroll taxes should have the right to vote. I would not extend this to sales tax. A little kid buying a pack of gum should not have the right to vote.

By that logic, should foreign nationals who work and pay taxes have the right to vote here?

[jp1]

By that logic, should foreign nationals who work and pay taxes have the right to vote here?

No. They chose to come here. I didn’t have any say in being born here.

[Yppej]

By that logic, should foreign nationals who work and pay taxes have the right to vote here?

If they are here and working legally (green card) they will be able to become citizens and to vote, and perhaps that 5 year process should be shortened. I would not oppose local governments giving them the right to vote, for example in school board elections.

If they are here illegally and taxes are being withheld from their checks based on stolen or falsified social security numbers then no they should not be able to vote.

[bae]

I made a fair chunk of change, and filed taxes, when I was 10, doing various small-town jobs. I would have been a voting fiend!

[GeorgeParker]

I see that a proposed amendment to HR 1 that would have included lowering the voting age to sixteen failed to pass, although the majority of Democrats voted in favor. Am I a dirty vote suppression villain for thinking that’s a good thing?

No. 16 is too young.

However the dirty filthy vote-suppressing people who want to raise the voting age from 18 to 21 (where it was pre-Vietnam) are equally wrong. And their logic that we should raise the voting age because teens vote emotionally, or don't take it seriously, or vote based on peer pressure is totally illogical. Probably 70-80% of all the adults who vote decide who they're going to vote for because of peer pressure or emotion or the only reason they vote is because they feel like they have to vote because it's their duty.

And the other big reason for raising the voting age to 21 is even dumber: "Hardly anyone under 21 votes anyway, so we might as well raise it to 21." If hardly anyone under 21 votes, there's no compelling reason for raising the voting age, and yet I've seen low participation listed during several campaigns as a "reason" for raising the age to 21.

Relevant Cultural Reference: The movie Wild in the Streets (1968) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRLwV2xafpk

[Yppej]

17 year olds can serve in the US military with parental consent and some do.

[Alan]

17 year olds can serve in the US military with parental consent and some do.

Yes, but they are not eligible for duty in a combat capacity or zone.

[GeorgeParker]

Yes, but they are not eligible for duty in a combat capacity or zone.

And they're not being drafted as 18-19 year olds were in the 1960s.