Voting for Teens?

The upfront article on Voting restrictions for people under the age of 18 was an eye opener and really interesting for me because I am under 18. What is being proposed in many states is that 16 year olds should be aloud to vote in national elections. Supporters of this initiative reason argue that teens have a fresh and well developed opinion on their political views and if they begin voting at a younger age it will be more likely for them to keep participating in future elections. I think that this is actually quite a good idea to do because only about 30% of legal voters actual vote and adding this whole other sector of people who can vote will definitely help boost those numbers.

Although there are many positives to this idea there are many negatives. For example, many people who are against this idea believe that teens will still not come because many 18 year olds now, dont go to elections and it will be an unnecessary law to pass. This being said, there are still large majorities of people who want their opinions to be voiced and should still have the right to do that being under 18. Other nay-sayers of this law believe that teens do not have fully developed and mature opinions and therefore should not be able to vote because of this. The common belief that young people can’t be talking as seriously as adults is flawed and wrong in terms of political views and they should be taken as seriously as anyone else.

Overall I think that sixteen year olds should have the right to vote in important elections because they have a well developed and mature opinion as well as fresh new views on the world around them. Many teenagers take what they believe in seriously and appreciate that there are initiatives to get their voices heard. The vote in america is not truly the american people speaking if its only 30% of them voting. So why don’t we change that and get this law passed!