Voting Age

Recently, I have been considering whether the voting age of 18 is appropriate, and whether the United States should consider addressing the national voting age. Many people believe that, of course, anyone paying taxes and the age of adulthood should have the right to vote- but I can’t help but wonder whether we might be better off with a higher voting age. To be a US Representative, you must be 25 years old. A US Senator must be 30, and the President of the United States must be 35. I don’t hate this arrangement, but I wonder why a person who is not of the age to be a Representative, for example, should have a vote on who should be the representative. Surely, I will be accused of making this argument simply on the basis that this younger demographic tends to vote in ways that I don’t, but truly, it is my own political experience during that age which suggested to me I was not prepared or equipped to fully understand the political process I was participating in. I don’t think many of us are, because with youth comes impressionability, and heavy biases. There simply is no replacement for life experience.

To clarify, I don’t think that young people should not be involved in politics. Maybe we should raise the voting age to 25, because most people are only orbitally aware of politics when they become an adult at 18, and until age 25, their experience can only be so limited. Voting is a serious duty, and it should be done carefully.

If you hate my idea, or have other comments, please click here and submit an AMA and I will update this blog with your comments and my response. I am very fluid on this idea, and wrote this piece fairly quickly, so I am open to suggestions on this topic.