Voting At 18 Years Old Essay

Voting at 16/17 Years Old

Have you ever thought what it would be like if teens around the age of 16 or 17 years old can vote. Well that is an interesting question that you must consider. Voting is the most important thing in the US because of why it is done. Voting is basically done to make something legal but most importantly to choose the next president. In this case, choosing the next president is very important because it decides the future for the country. Over the years there has always been the same rule and that is that only adults 18 years of age and older are allowed to vote and that is because they are more capable of making a good decision and that is not always the case. But what would happen if 16 and 17 year olds were allowed

to vote as well? Teens around the age of 16 and 17 years of age should vote because they are educationally able to make a good decision, eighteen-year-olds are not a very good first voting age group, and it will get teens in the habit of voting for the rest of their life.
In my opinion teens around the world should be given the chance to vote because they are educationally able to make a good political decision. Ever since 7th grade for the most part you start learning about the history of the world and as you go on you start learning about the history of the US. For example, throughout all those years of history you learn about bad people, good people, bad decisions, and good decisions. After seeing what causes war or what some kings do is not right, you learn to make effective decisions because you have better outlook on things and what the outcome might be. In relations to school, the majority of 16 and 17 year olds are enrolled in a Government Class. This is really beneficial because you learn about politics like the legislative, judicial, and executive branch and how they work. Elders oppose to the fact students are still unaware or oblivious on a political standpoint but if the students (or Seniors) in Government class are learning about what makes a good president, the requirements to make a good president and so forth, then that means that they are truly capable of making a good political decision. On the other hand, in the article “Takoma Park 16 year old savors his history-making moment at the polls”, Annys Shin argues “others predicted that the 16- and 17- year olds most likely to vote are from politically active homes and are thus likely to amplify the power of an already well-represented group.” What Shin is trying to say is that the teens living in politically active homes are politically influenced. This means that if a teen’s parents teach him the good things about the presidency and how to make a good decision, then they will make a good decision just like their parents. Teens voting like their parents will basically be a double vote which will later on accumulate with the rest of the United State voters and you will soon have double the voter turnout and for a positive cause.
In my case right now, I am currently a senior taking a government class. Before taking this class I had no clue on how the whole presidency worked. I just based the winner on who had the most color which was either blue or red. But in taking this class I learned so much like for example the number of electoral votes each state has and how many electoral votes the presidential candidate must have in order to win which is 270. California being a big state has a total of 52 electoral votes which is the best state to win in the election. However, learning about government and what each branch does helped me expand my knowledge on choosing who would make a better president even though I can’t vote. For example, the 2016 debate that had Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as presidential candidates allowed me to watch each debate live and be able to see who had better ideas. To be frank with you, if I were able to vote at 17 years of age, I would be able to make an effective decision because I understand politics way more than how I used to.
Additionally, being able to vote at 18 years of age is a not a very good first voting age group and here is why.

18 year olds are making a big transition from depending on their parents for everything to now having to depend on themselves. This means finding a job, going to college on your own, planning to get your own place sometime, making important decisions that would benefit your future and so on. Annys Shin also has a similar point in her article that states, “many of the teens are in the midst of leaving their childhood homes.” Similarly to what I said, teens have way too much pressure when the time comes to become independent. When I leave high school, I am not really going to focus on anything political to be quite honest with you and this is why. As I transition from highschool to college, I am going to have way more responsibilities than the mini ones I had when I was in highschool. The two key responsibilities that I will have and focus on entirely are getting a job in order to help my dad out economically and going to college in order to make a better future for myself. I am not going to care on who is president because no president will be able to stop me from doing what I have to do or close any doors on me. Not even Donald Trump because first of all I have laws that protect

me.
Furthermore, voting at younger age will get more people to vote and will get teens into a habit of voting for the rest of their life and will get a bigger voting turnout rate. Voting at 16 years old will get you more interested on learning about politics and wanting to know how to make a more effective choice. Maybe it might even persuade you to find a career that is relevant to politics. For the most part, the biggest concern for why people want underage teens to vote is to increase the voting turnout rate. Allowing teens that have a good political outlook will greatly affect the voting rate and it will also be beneficial to the people. People might again argue that teens voting is not a good thing and won’t help at all but if you think about it will. For example, let's say you are an educated person that understands politics and can make an effective decision and if you are that’s great. But let’s also say that you also have a 16 year old daughter who is a good student and who you talk to about politics and is smart like you. If it were voting time and there was this bad president running, wouldn’t you want all the 16 year olds like your daughter who are smart, intellectual, and have a good political understanding to vote. Isn’t two better than one especially when your ‘daughter’ was politically influenced by you. So you see, whenever educated adults say teens are not educated enough to vote, that means they are calling their possibly straight A’s daughter or son dumb and therefore makes the dad kind of a hypocrite because she might have learned about politics from the dad himself. Basically it's like a another mini parent voting because they might also learn the political stuff from their parents.
As you can see, teenagers will greatly benefit the voting turnout and might actually make a good use out of it. Teens are the future of america and that is why they should be given the chance to do something that involves their future. Teens now in the days are more aware about what is going on around them thanks to social media and well all the new technology that we have. At the end of the day. The adults shouldn’t be the only ones choosing the future for their kids, but the teens should be given the chance to choose what they want.