On Voting Rights | Teen Ink

On Voting Rights

August 10, 2018
By MaximillianRoberts BRONZE, Thomson, Illinois
MaximillianRoberts BRONZE, Thomson, Illinois
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

We teenagers often hear from adults that we are irresponsible and don’t really care about what happens in our world. But that’s a gross generalization on our population. But there are many of us teenagers who are competent in their knowledge of politics. So why can’t they vote? Many of the bases of our great nation’s democracy are everyone’s voice matters. It’s every citizen’s right to choose their leader, but they don’t respect teenager’s voice in that matter. Those that mean that the only way we can change things is flat out protest? It seems that the only way we can influence the election of officials is to convince adult voters. But then, many adults would agree that we teenagers don’t know what we are talking about. Until we are 18, our voices can’t be included in the ballots. Does that mean that adults know more than us? No, many adults have no more knowledge than us. In fact it would seem that some adults even have less knowledge of politics. So why are they able to vote? Shouldn’t all people be able to vote then? That’s why I propose a solution to the issue of voting rights, a mandatory test to gauge a voter’s competence. Depending on the score of the individual’s score is the citizen’s ability to vote. If they fail, they cannot vote. The test would be administered at the voting facilities and would allow anyone of any age to vote, as long as they pass the test and wish to vote. This would finally eliminate the 18 year old voting age, and finally politically competent teens would be able to vote.


The author's comments:

A short rant on age equality in voting.


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