Teenagers Should Be Able For Vote For Their Future

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Teenagers should be able to vote for their future. 16 year olds being able to vote in all elections and votes is a subject in which people can have strongly contrasting views, 7 countries already have the voting age at 16 years old including Brazil, Cuba and Austria. 3 countries have their voting age at 17 years old such as Sudan, Korea and Indonesia. Why does Scotland not yet have their voting age lowered to 16 for all votes? One side of the arugument is that 16 year olds can be married and start a family but can 't vote and on the other hand some argue that teenagers are not yet mature enough to make a decision in an election.
Some would argue that teenagers aged 16 and 17 are not interested in voting or how poltics work all together. However, this is not true as in the Scottish Referendum more than 100,000 of 16 and 17 year olds were registered to vote by polling day on the 18th of September 2014. 100,000 of 16 and 17 year olds were interested in voicing their opinion on a subject that would affect not only their future but the future of Scotland and the United Kingdom. If they weren 't interested in voting then they wouldn 't have registered. Does this not prove that teenagers are more interested in voting than some may think? I think so. Now we all know that not every teenager is going to want to be involved in voting, but why should we say that all 16 and 17 year old shouldn 't be allowed to vote because of the small minority that wouldn 't vote when there is a larger number that would participant in a vote. Teenagers were very involved with the referendum. There were many heated debates that took place in and out of the classroom all around Scotland. The Senior Liberal Democrats Minister and Scottish MP, Danny Alexander t...

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...nk teenagers had enough maturity to do so. So why aren 't they allowed to vote. By 18 you are thought to become more independent and responsible. However ages doesn 't measure independance or how resposnible you are.
In conclusion, I think that 16 and 17 year ilds should be granted the ability to vote in all eceltions and votes that take place. I think that they are mature enough to make important decisions about their future. If young people are considered old enough to make decisions about their own future for example, to leave school, then they are mature enough to be able to make decisions about the future of their country. Voting allows them to form political views and they should be allowed to put these views across during voting time. Many 16 year olds are just as mature and independent as an 18 year old would be. It is their future they would be voting for.

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