the voting age should be lowered to 16.

thank you to whomever accepts this debate. the legislation that lawmakers enact affects everyone, including those that are under age 18. if the purpose of democratic voting is to maximize government representation, then why should we not take into account the wants and needs of young people? for instance, the government makes a lot of education decisions which affect, you guessed it, young people. more importantly, the government spends the tax dollars of young people, though the young people have no say (no taxation without representation!). for instance, i've worked since i was 15 and yet i had absolutely no say via voting in how my tax dollars were spent for 3 full years. while i'm aware that we do not live in a direct democracy, we're at least allowed to vote in politicians who represent our views, though minors can't. statistics show that 80% of high school students work before graduation. http://www.youthrights.org... i believe that young people are just as capable of having an educated opinion as older people. if you look around this site, some of the most intelligent members are minors and they have more logical and intelligent opinions than many who are of age. one doesn't magically become aware of what's going on in the world once they become 18. in high school, one begins to learn about government and politics. in many cases, most adults cannot even remember what they learned in school whereas high school students are in the midst of learning about it themselves. one only needs to consider the show "are you smarter than a fifth grader" to consider my point. students who took the comprehensive We the People ("WTP") constitutional law program scored BETTER than adults 18-80 in knowledge of government and politics. additionally, students today are more intelligent than in the past. now unknowledgeable adults are not kept from voting, so why should knowledgeable young people? "Studied conducted by Professor James Flynn have shown that IQ scores grew by 17 points during the period 1947 through 2001, with the increase accelerating to 0.36 points per year in the 1990's.4 In other words, a child scoring in the top 25% in an IQ test today, would score in the top 3% of an IQ test in 1932.5 Experts have suggested an explanation to this trend: the explosion of new media, television and particularly the internet, which challenge youth's cognitive senses and problem solving abilities." http://www.youthrights.org... another point to consider is that youth voting will increase adult voting. also, the idea that the votes of young people will be "manipulated" by their parents or other adults is insufficient. people at age 16 have their own political opinions that are often different from their parents (for instance, young people care more about issues like gay rights and environment protection), and it's unfair to say that other adults won't or can't be manipulated just as easily. one theory is that conservatives are the reason young people cannot vote. because young people tend to be more "liberal" in thought and care about things that are more liberal, conservatives do not want to give young people the opportunity to have a say even though young people have to abide by the laws, and are often punished as adults for breaking those laws (because the law decides when it's convenient to consider you "mature" enough to make a decision). for instance, young people are considered a more liberal demographic, and would probably vote for more liberal policies. http://www.nytimes.com... studies and polls show that teenagers WANT to vote and there is no good reason why they shouldn't be allowed to vote. the constitution says that we cannot prohibit a law abiding citizen over the age of 18 to vote, but says nothing about prohibiting those under 18 to vote. the right to vote should be extended to minors, at least to those 16 and older. even if it's only to working kids 16 and older, it's still lowering the voting age which i think is important. and that's all for now, so thank you to whomever accepts.