Active participation in the political process will lead to a lifetime of voting. In order for young people to benefit from a lower voting age, they must first show interest in elections and politics. Poll after poll suggests young people want the right to vote. This interest begins early in childhood and continues into high school. In 1992, Sesame Place, a children s amusement park in the Philadelphia area, conducted a survey of young people aged eight to twelve.
Young people are ready and willing to vote, if given the chance.
Young people also have a strong interest in politics generally, despite the conventional wisdom that they are much more concerned with other matters. In order for a lower voting age to succeed, young people would also have to turn out in large numbers to vote. Available evidence from the U.S. and abroad suggests they would do so. In Germany in 1996, the State of Lower Saxony lowered its voting age to sixteen in local elections. In the United States, no state or locality has set a voting age lower than eighteen.