But letting the generic to year-old teenager vote is completely different. He frequently writes about politics, society and elections. Get a briefing of all the latest stories from The News Record, delivered right to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Have an opinion on a recent story or event around the University of Cincinnati? Let us know what you think! If you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click the button below to email David Rees, editor-in-chief.
For news tips or story ideas, contact one of our editors. Edit Close. Commentary: Why year-olds should be able to vote. Yes, there are voting adults who cast their votes in a disinterested or uninformed manner, but they are the ones paying the taxes and being directly impacted by the laws passed by our elected officials. They should, by all means, legally have a say in issues that directly affect them and their money.
At 18, I can say that I am fully affected by every decision made by those in power, and should have a full and complete say in who gets to control the government. It can be argued that many year-olds are just as intellectually mature as their year-old counterparts. Adults with mental disabilities are still guaranteed the right to vote under the same qualifications as everyone else. The voting age may be a legal construct, but it ties into the fact that 18 is the age at which teenagers acquire the vast majority of their rights as adults.
Take, for example, the most recent national lowering of the voting age. This came in , when the U. At the time, year-olds were enlisting and being drafted into the military, laying down their lives overseas in the Vietnam War. The individuals who were being drafted were incredulous that they were being denied the right to choose the political leaders who were determining the battles they fought.
Yes, 16 is the general age at which teenagers gain a new relationship with the law. There's a rights and responsibilities balance here.
The suggestion that the vote should be voluntary seems to tap into the idea that this is a right that young people ought to enjoy without having that sense of responsibility, a period of grace in which that responsibility is not expected of them, yet they're participating the political process.
I think one without the other is problematic. It skews things. The whole point of participating in the wider democratic process is that you don't just have your own self-interest, your own rights at heart; you have a vision for a flourishing society.
With lowering the age and making it compulsory, when it's compulsory people tend to do more research on our government. So I think that if it's voluntary they won't really put much interest in it, because they know: 'I don't have to'. But by making it compulsory they will know who their Prime Minister is, at the end of the day. They will know who's running and who's in the race for it. So I think compulsory voting, overall, makes our country more educated in politics.
Introducing voluntary voting, even if just for one demographic, to year-olds, introduces the very real possibility that cohorts within that age group will not be voting, and there is a possibility of policy distortion to flow from that. Darcie Weaver likewise felt there was a danger that non-compulsory voting would weaken the power of the newly enfranchised voices:. For me, I believe that for us to be able to vote we need to be on the same grounds as everyone else.
You can't permit special treatment for some people, otherwise that could create a way for us to be drowned out. If not everyone votes, not everyone has a say; if not everyone is heard, then there was no point in the beginning. If we begin voting now that education will begin a lot earlier and we get basically into a better habit as we continue on later in our life. While cognisant of the dangers of compulsion when dealing with 16 year olds, the HRLC also recognised that there is a danger that voluntary voting will undermine the compulsory voting system that is vital to Australian politics.
Citing a similar concern in regards to the compulsory voting system, Associate Professor Luke Beck rejected the introduction of voluntary voting:. First, it treats one class of voters differently to all other voters for no reason other than their age. There is no material difference between a 17 year old and an 18 year old that could justify the law treating a 17 year old voter differently to an 18 year old voter. Any arguments that could made in support of making voting for 16 and 17 year olds voluntary are equally applicable to voters who are 18 years old, 28 years old or 88 years old.
That system of compulsory voting has served Australia very well. Amos Washington, Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations, recommended voluntary voting in his final report, following national discussions with young people.
He further expanded his personal view supporting compulsory voting, but with no fines for young voters:. The first is that in my role as youth representative, I'm not here to represent my own personal opinions; I was chosen to serve as a conduit for youth perspectives. I had informal conversations and straw polls with thousands of young people last year, and there was an appetite for optional voting amongst the and year-olds that I spoke with.
So there's that. Secondly, I am a big fan of compulsory voting personally. I believe that compulsory voting is one of the best aspects of our democracy. We're one of the only democratic countries in the world that has compulsory voting.
That's fantastic. I think that we need to encourage a culture of compulsory voting. We already have that culture. We even saw in the non-binding, non-compulsory marriage equality postal survey that we still had quite a high turnout. So we have a culture of compulsory voting and political participation in Australia. What I would suggest is that we continue to have compulsory voting; we don't fine and year-olds for not voting.
That is the difference that I see, in practical terms. I think we place very restricted autonomy over and year-olds, and sometimes and year-olds aren't actually able to control where they are at a particular time, perhaps because they're beholden to their parents, teachers, guardians or schools. By fining young people for not showing up to vote we're actually doing a disservice to and year-olds, I believe.
So I would be proposing a culture of compulsory voting and not fining and year-olds. Young Women Speak Out noted:. Australians rate our system of compulsory voting as a core democratic value. Notwithstanding significant gaps, it affords near universal suffrage. Chronically low enrolment and turn out rates for the under 25 age group are a major threat to this system. Lowering the voting age could address this by engaging voters earlier at a traditionally less transitional and tumultuous period of life.
An unequivocal statement that the voices and views of s are not only important, but critical to the functioning of our democracy, could work to remedy youth disengagement in electoral politics.
Some considered voluntary voting a means of educating rather than forcing young voters. A soft entry into the democratic process gives young people who are eager to vote a platform to do so without enforcing this on the whole cohort. I think it would be important, if we were to go to a compulsory vote, that there were a really good transition stage so that young people didn't feel—I suppose they are being ordered to do it.
I think it's really important that we bring young people in with us on the process of whatever way we go—that they are contributing to it, helping inform it and feel knowledgeable around what is happening and why it's happening, rather than being dictated to.
Because there is that developmental stage, too, at No year-old wants to be told what to do, regardless of what the situation is. We need to work out how to be aware of that and, if this is to happen, make it a process that's going to work as well as it can and be as informative as possible. This notion of a transition period was popular among many of the young people appearing before the Committee.
I think that, if there is a transitional period, that would be really important. It would give a positive meaning to voting for young people, because they'd be making the decision to do it, and I think that that would help them.
Obviously, when you're 18, a lot of laws change and a lot of things are different for you. But a lot of year-olds probably don't know how to vote, because they haven't had that transitional period. So I think it's really important to have that in place so they understand what's going on and they can engage with it if they would like to. Then, when they're 18 and they have to engage with it, they at least have an understanding of how to do it and what's going on.
I think what we were looking at is having it voluntary for a couple of years, and then seeing what the outcome of that was. If it is quite successful, then we could take it further, and have it compulsory. But I think a reason that a lot of people over 18 aren't passionate about it is because they don't really know what's going on.
So I think setting the education there for to year-olds, and voluntarily giving them the choice, and then, when they are adults, they can make their own informed decision. I think it's a smart way of approaching it. It's certainly been in my mind that at some point this would become compulsory. It's a matter of time though, but I can understand the concerns that others are putting about compulsory elements.
So, yes, it may be to say that, let's say for two electoral cycles, we have a voluntary process to implement this, then it becomes mandatory. Something along those lines may be quite sensible and would emphasise that the voluntary aspect is really about logistics, education and the like rather than seeking to undermine a value within our democracy. Josh Manuatu, Federal Young Liberal President, offered a diverging view, and made the case for voluntary voting across the full spectrum of the voting cohort.
The conflicting evidence presented to the Committee on the matter of non-compulsory voting suggests that further evidence is required, particularly with regards to youth participation in the few international jurisdictions with compulsory voting.
Longitudinal research has indicated that voluntary voting in under 18s had a strong effect in depressing turnout. This would seem to be supported by findings of the Electoral Knowledge Network, which states:. In a mandatory registration system, citizens understand more fully that voting is a civic duty and responsibility.
The implication of a system of mandatory registration and voting is that each citizen has an obligation to vote both for himself or herself and for the community as a whole.
In other words, citizens have an obligation to vote for the health of the democratic system, not only for the chance to have their personal preferences represented. Despite the thoughtfulness of some of the arguments put forward in favour of voluntary voting and while members of the Committee individually hold views about voluntary versus compulsory voting, the Committee as a whole does not believe it would be of any benefit to the electoral system to create two classes of voters.
The third argument both for and against lowering the voting age is political maturity. Those for the proposition claim that young people are politically mature enough to be trusted to vote, those against argue the opposite. The Committee was not surprised to hear protestations from young people when it came to questions of maturity.
At 16, individuals are allowed to drive, leave school and pay taxes, providing them with many responsibilities that require a significant degree of maturity. It seems arbitrary at best to say that 16 and 17 year olds are mature enough to do these things, but not mature enough to vote. Similarly, the Youth Coalition of the ACT refuted the idea that young people should not be recognised as fully-capable citizens:. This mischaracterises young people as politically inept and fuels a narrative that they are not ready to participate in democratic activities.
The Committee was presented with substantial evidence of youth engagement and maturity at each public hearing, with Mr Davis, outlining a number of key issues in this respect:. Before today I spoke with the people [that] I hope to represent, young people and students, and the resounding response from everybody that I spoke to was that it's not only a logistical possibility but a moral must that we include the voices of young people in parliament, at an institutional level, through voting.
Time and time again, we as young people are told that we are too immature and uninformed to properly engage in an election. To put it simply, that's just incorrect. Never before in human history have young people had such wide and diverse access to information, through the internet. Never before in human history have young people been given such a social and moral responsibility to engage in society. Our government must reflect this new reality through lowering the voting age.
In fact, by not lowering the voting age, we are harming the possible future of our democracy. When young people feel our voices are not heard, we can be disenfranchised and alienated, instead turning to more polarised and radical special-interest groups through, say, social media or the internet, which obviously can have both positive and negative impacts on our democracy.
Similarly, Wren Gillett, also from the Victorian Student Representative Council, raised an important distinction before the Committee:. I would like to start off by making a distinction between age and maturity. I believe that they are two disparate things. I think people quite often tend to view them as parallel from an objective standpoint, where age equates to a subsequent level of maturity. People generally tend to look at youth as a collective where the common denominator is causally made to unjustly reflect the collective as a whole.
I personally believe that, from an objective perspective, a lot of people tend to view the generation of people of my age in accordance to the lowest common denominator or, as you could say, as probably those most disengaged in politics. That tends to be what generally reflects our entire collective as an entire group.
I would like to also make another distinction between the fact that there is such thing as an uninformed vote but I do not believe that there is such thing as a wrong vote. In Argentina and other countries that let people vote at 16, voter turnout is significantly higher among and year-olds than among to year-olds. And a study out of Denmark found that young people are more likely to vote if they do so for the first time while still living with their parents. Voting is an important responsibility.
But younger teens might not take it seriously, some people say. Others argue that many teens do not know enough about the government. They may not understand what they are voting on until they get older.
Just because teens participate in protests does not mean they are ready to cast ballots, critics of lowering the voting age say. In fact, less than half of American eighth-graders are proficient in civics, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress civics assessment. That has led many states to increase the age at which teens can do certain activities. For example, most states have raised to 18 the age at which teens can drive a car without any restrictions.
Will young teens get the right to vote? They might! The rules about who can vote have changed over time. Here is how. In most states, only white men who own land or a business can vote.
Constitution is approved. It gives all men the right to vote, regardless of their skin color. But some states make new rules to stop Black men from voting. It gives women the right to vote. But some state rules still prevent Black women from voting.
That means they can vote. Some states block Native Americans from voting anyway. The law says states can not prevent or make it difficult for Black people, Native Americans, and other groups to vote.
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