Lowering The Voting Age Essay

When it comes to lowering or keeping the voting age at 18, I am usually neutral about it. if I had to choose I don't see the harm in lowering the voting age. In America the people who usually vote are the elderly, lowering the voting age may help to balance it out because many young people don't have a say in certian outcomes with voting. There were a lot of predictions about lowering the age to 18 that all turned out to be untrue. While there are only 38% of voter aged from 18 to 24 that voted in 2012 and many can say that lowering the age would only lower those numbers, take a look at Austria whom has the highest voter participation and their age is set to 16! There is nothing special about the age being 18, with a low amount of young people voting it can bring America to the top with participation rate.

First off, the elderly are some of the highest people who vote in America, I say lowering the voting age may encourage people who are younger to start voting more. I stand by this because from experience and seeing many young people who are not satisified with some voting outcomes, they barely have a say in the matter because they cannot vote.

People can argue that the only reason people do not vote is because it's not as accessible, mobile voting booths or voting from home would increase our already low percentages, I believe this a false to an extent. I say if we lower the the age of voting and allow people to vote from home, that would increase our voting participation and give young people a say in some polls.

Although, there is already a low amount of people, aged 18-24, who barely vote, some argue that lowering it would only decrease numbers, I agree to a certain extent. People who are that age usually don't dwell into politics. Lowering it may encourage more people to vote because certain outcomes can happen. Only if we have people that want the change that is. Now this is a controversial topic that i remain nuetral on, look at the recent election, there were two sides of the coin who wanted Mrs. Clinton to be president and the other side who wanted Mr. Trump. A lot of people were unsatisfied with how the election ended, this is were my arguement comes into play, if we lowered the voting age to 16 it would've given a lot of young men and women a say in the matter, maybe the outcome would've changed.

Furthermore, I don't think there is anything special about the number being 18, from personal experience most people who are 18 are in school and who are usually busy to not be able to vote, or they don't care.

16, 17, all the way 24 are the people who are usually interested in politics, lowering the age can bring new and interesting changes if they vote. We are the lowest when it comes to participation in voting, Austria has their age set at 16 and they have the a phenomenal rate, capping at 98%! There are people who think that young people shouldn't be added to the electorate, I say those people are Elitists. You shouldn't be close minded about this because if it works for other countries, it can work for America too! This is the land of the free, we should be able to give young adults a say in the matter

too!

In conclusion, this is how I feel about lowering the voting age, many won't agree with me, but it's still an insight on why lowering it could help. All these countries have set the trend about their voting ages, why can't America follow too? There is nothing good that come from keeping people who can make a change by voting. The middle aged and the middle aged if they already have something they voted that can't be changed by a lesser few, then are we really free? Can we say that we are a better country without more people having a say? America is a great country, but we can make it better! If we lower the voting age we can truly have a democracy by giving a voice to the lesser few. Outcomes can end differently and we can have higher participation rates! I believe this is why we should lower it, not because it can hurt us, but because we can benifit from it!