Lowering the Voting Age By: Lauren Shuber

CLAIM

• There are many reasons as to why the United States should lower the voting age from eighteen to sixteen.

5 REASONS

• Double Standards • Taxes • Youth Representation • 16 Is Stationary • Stupid Adults, Smart Youth

REASON 1:DOUBLE STANDARDS

• Adult responsibilities • Subject to adult criminal penalties • Message: Youth are judged mature, responsible adults

when they commit murder but they are brainless kids when they want to vote

REASON 1:DOUBLE STANDARDS

• 12 years of age • 3 states automatically prosecute 16 and 17 year olds • 10 states automatically prosecute 17 year olds

REASON 2:TAXES

• $9.7 billion• 80% of high school students have a job • Taxes go to state, local, and federal government yet they

have no say in how much is taken or what it is used for • Taxation without representation American Revolution

REASON 2:TAXES

• Paid weekly / $8.75 an hour • Receive 8 paychecks • YTD 1,437.46 with $223.76 out in taxes • If government takes out taxes from youth checks, they

should have a say in where it goes and who says where it goes, which mean lowering the voting age.

REASON 3:YOUTH REPRESENTATION

• Politicians represent various constituencies, young people are not one of them

• Why should politicians care about the needs of wishes of youth when they have no ability to vote for or against them?

REASON 3:YOUTH REPRESENTATION

• Give politicians real reason to respect desires of youth • Feel alienated from politics include them in the process

REASON 3:YOUTH REPRESENTATION

• Senate Judiciary Committee supporting lowering the voting age in 1971 are as true then as they are now:

“The anachronistic voting age limitation tends to alienate youth…and drive them into a search of an alternative, sometimes violent, means to express their frustrations over the gap between the nation’s

deals and actions. Lowering the voting age will

provide them with a direct, constructive and

democratic channel for making their views felt and

for giving them a responsible stake in the future of

the nation.

REASON 4:16 IS STATIONARY

• 18 – leaving the community • Time of voting – new community they are unfamiliar

with absentee voting

REASON 4:16 IS STATIONARY

• 16 – roots in a community, appreciation for local issues • Comfortable surroundings, school, parents, and friends • Increase desire and need to vote

REASON 5:STUPID ADULTS, SMART YOUTH

• Argument – youth should not vote because they lack the ability to make informed and intelligent decisions

• “We do not deprive a senile person of this right, now do we deprive any of the millions of alcoholics, neurotics, psychotics and assorted fanatics who live outside hospitals of it. We seldom ever prevent those who are hospitalized for mental illness from voting.”

REASON 5:STUPID ADULTS, SMART YOUTH

• Adults do not meet unrealistic standards • Jay Leno

REASON 5:STUPID ADULTS, SMART YOUTH

• Intelligence and maturity is not the basis of which the right is granted mandatory test

• Youth should not be held to stricter standards than adults

REASON 5:STUPID ADULTS, SMART YOUTH

• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 – “any person who has been adjudged an incompetent and who has completed the sixth grade…possesses sufficient literacy, comprehension, and intelligence to vote in any election.”

CONCLUSION

• Although there are many arguments against lowering the voting age, there are solutions and answers to each of these arguments.