Poll: Voting Age

[sallene]

The problem is, most of those who are able to competently do this at age 18 can do it by age 16, whereas those who can't still can't decades later.

I would disagree with that in my opinion. At 16 the human brain is still a mess of warring hormones, 18 is pushing it my opinion but definetely not 16, just because someone might seem "mature" for their age does not mean they will be able to make mature and informed desicions even with all the info at their disposal, their brains just arent fully developed in that capacity yet.


Edit - also, so I do not become flame bait to all the under 18 crowd understand I am a misanthropic bastard who dislikes humanity in general.

 

[Skeleon]

16 could work, but some people still act like pubertal pricks at that age.
For their sake, I'd say let's keep it at 18 to have some sort of buffer.

 

[JanatUrlich]

Yeah but I'm sure you could name a lot of people you know who couldn't make a sensible political decision. I know I can.

Yeah but at this age I'm betting that most wouldn't even bother to vote, nevermind have to make a political decision. I'm pretty sure that only people interested in politics would vote under the age of 19/20.

 

[iron codpiece]

I've recently become angered by the fact that 16 - 17 year olds are unable to vote in Britain and America. They are able to give blood, raise a family (in Britain) and pay taxes but they cannot vote.

You're opinions?

When the age to enter the military was lowered so was the voting age.

 

[Abedeus]

18. I'm 17 and even now I think that 18 is enough.

 

[PixieFox]

I agree with reducing the age limit to 16, as far as voting goes; at that time I was old enough to hold a job, and old enough for Uncle Sam to take a cut of my wages -- why should I not have a say, then, in how the money is spent?

 

[bodyklok]

Either 18 or 20, no particular reason why.

 

[Fenning]

That's pretty true I guess. I don't really care. If you're that into politics, but you're too young to vote, move somewhere where you can, move somewhere where you don't vote, or get over it.

 

[UpcountryGecko]

I voted 16 because that it was benefits me being 17 at the moment and the next general election being more then likely before my 18th. even though I voted this way i think that 18 is the right age to vote. I would say that in my experience a lot (by no means am I saying all) of 16 year olds aren't mature enough to vote for what is best for them. What I mean by this is that I believe that a lot of 16/17 year olds wouldn't vote or would vote entirely for the wrong reason. Sorry my mind is a bit clatered right now, but how many of the extra electorate do you believe would read the parties manifestos to see which one would suit them best> I'm not saying that 18 year olds do but at least they have the whole life experience argument with some people being married and having children at that age.

 

[Fingerprint]

Yeah but I'm sure you could name a lot of people you know who couldn't make a sensible political decision. I know I can.

Yeah but at this age I'm betting that most wouldn't even bother to vote, nevermind have to make a political decision. I'm pretty sure that only people interested in politics would vote under the age of 19/20.

That's a good point but I feel that too people who don't care would still vote just because they can, and that could potentially lead to problems. Hell at 16 I would have been all for voting Monster Raving Loonies or whatever party was for getting rid of the ban on cannabis. And therein lies my problem with lowering the voting age. Its not to say that that's what all 16/17yr olds would do but there are those who would.

 

[Gooble]

I'd say that just from my school that probably about 2/3 of people were capable of making an informed choice when voting. However, I do think there should honestly be some test or something to allow people to vote to make sure they make an informed choice on who they're going to vote for; so many people I know don't even bother looking at the policies really, even my Dad who I consider a clever man (he's got a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Oxford) didn't bother looking at anyones policies and ended up voting for the Lib Dems just because he doesn't like Tories and knows Labour are up shit creek and had no idea about any of the other parties.

 

[BardSeed]

The majority of teens don't care about politics, even if you may. I think there would have to be an increase in teenage interest to justify lowering the voting age.

 

[KSarty]

16. If you are old enough to be drafted, you are old enough to drink and vote.

You don't even register for the draft until you turn 18 in the US, so the voting age of 18 makes sense.

 

[speedcoreXdandy]

As soon as you can start paying taxes you should be allowed to vote, I'm 16 and hoping to get a job in the next few months and a fair amount of my wage will be going to the Government, therefore I think that I deserve a say in who they are.

 

[RedVelvet]

I think that the voting age should be lowered to 16 and that voting is, like in America, voluntary ...

 

[Trivun]

What idiot put 'any age'? There's been one vote for that so far, so that person apparently thinks giving ten year olds the chance to vote is a good idea? Oh God, the BNP and all the dumber parties are going to take over sooner than we thought...

As for me, I say 18. People at 16 aren't necessarily mature enough to be able to vote sensibly, I personally disagree slightly with the whole marriage, giving blood and paying taxes and so on at 16 as well. A lot of people are mature at 16, as Janat said above, I believe. However, there are still plenty of immature idiots out there at that age and so it would be a bad idea to give those people that sort of choice.

 

[Azraellod]

I think that instead of an age limit maybe an intelligence limit would be better.

ill support that, much better then the age thing.

if i have to choose an age though, i ould go with 17, purely because of all the immature 16 year olds i know from school

 

[NeutralDrow]

I like it where it is. I don't think I'd trust most of the high school students I've known to vote (and the ones I would trust can wait a couple of years).

I think that the voting age should be lowered to 16 and that voting is, like in America, voluntary ...

Wait, the UK has mandatory voting? Or wherever you're from?

I wonder, does that tend to increase (encouraging participation) or decrease (party-line voting) people's ability to give a shit? I'm honestly curious.

 

[Ben Legend]

Personally, I think 17, at 17 myself and my friends always spoke about it.

I think most adults tend to see people acting immature, and automatically think they should not be allowed to vote for being immature. Even though, when it comes to voting, the majority of people are very mature about it.

 

[Fightgarr]

I picked 18 because I think that most 18 year-olds would be able to make a structured descision if they took the time to do the research on how they were voting, and those that don't do the research generally don't vote. I don't think a 16 year-old would be able to make a proper, informed descision, they just have no idea what they're doing fiscally. Now this is a generalization and I'm using myself as a jumping off point on both of those cases. Frankly though, we shouldn't vote, we should just let dragons rule us like it is meant to be.
All hail Draconovus, king of us all.