Reduce Voting Age to 16

699 Words2 Pages

The legal voting age should be reduced to 16 instead of 18. We can work, we can join the army, we can even get married at the age of 16, but we can't vote at 16? We can leave school, we can move out of the family house and live on our own independently if we wanted to at the age of 16, but yet we are considered immature and not responsible enough to vote at 16, why?

Why is electing a political representative much more important than authorising a 16 year old to go fight and potentially die for their country.

The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1969 during the Vietnam war, because it was only fair to those aged 18 - 20 dying for their country have a say in how the country is run. Therefore if 16 year olds are now capable of joining the army then surely it makes sense to also give them the opportunity to vote. Nothing can fully prepare you for joining the army at 16 – living on the edge of life, putting yourself and others at risk, and living in an extremely dangerous environment, not knowing whether you will survive or die within the next second. A majority of people who oppose of lowering the voting age believe that 16 year olds simply don’t have the life experience nor any knowledge as to what politics even is; this is not true. There are people who go into war that don’t have enough life experience or knowledge of everything, yet they are managing to face every challenge that is thrown at them.

Secondly, it is argued that by allowing 16 and 17 year olds to participate in the elections, would be meaningless because it is likely that they have been manipulated by the parents and brainwashed by false promises. Those who agree to this need to stop making false assumption; we are not a puppet or a 10 year old that is ...

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...ct on their future. Finally we will get some recognition and our decision will be also accounted for. This powerful yes or no question will impact and change many lives. It will be an exciting moment, to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote, to finally be accepted as full members of the society.

It is not just about giving us the right to vote, it is the gate for young people to step up a level and actively take part in the decision making processes – contributing to society.

Let us 16 and 17 year old have our say. Is there any harm in giving us this privilege and responsibility as a young adult?

Works Cited

http://yougov.co.uk/news/2012/02/15/and-against-lowering-voting-age/ http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/legal-voting-age-should-be-lowered-to-16-28874729.html http://www.theguardian.com/uk/scotland-blog/2012/oct/18/scotland-referendum-votes16

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