Blog Stage 6

Give Youth A Voice is an article posted on Young Minded Perspective of the U.S. that argues that the voting age should be lowered to 16 or 17. The article's main argument is that teenagers around that age are already given enough adult responsibilities that they should also be responsible enough to vote. Along with the article also points out that voting turnout may increase and that it is important to engage the youth as they are the ones that will inherit our future. 

I would have to agree with the author on the reduction of the voting age, although for different reasons. I think that while it is true that we already give many 16 year olds some responsibilities of an adult, I still feel that at that age they are not really given the full freedom and responsibilities that turning 18 can bring. The most prominent change being at 16 most teens are still in school, while most 18 year olds are now out of the public school system. This by itself is quite a massive change that can lead to differences in responsibility at those two ages. I believe it is because of this lack of responsibility that the voting age should be lowered. This is because at the age of 18 a person may feel overwhelmed at what needs to be done as a legal adult, and without guidance voting may just seem like a nuisance. On the other hand, because 16 year olds are still in school they have less adult responsibilities while having the guidance of the school to encourage them to vote and as the original article said, people are much more likely to continue voting if they have already voted once before, making these younger voters much more likely to vote in the future.