Voting age

[Joe Biden 2020]

18.  At that age you are a man or a woman, no longer a boy or a girl.  You become an adult at that age.  Anything earlier and you run a higher risk of non-voters because most 15-17 year olds probably care nothing about politics and don't watch the news at all.  Anything over 18 and you're considering 18 year olds to be children and youngsters.

I have never understood why people call adults between 18 and 25 boys and girls or kids.  I have never understood the term "college kid".  If your in college, YOU ARE NOT A CHILD, YOU ARE AN ADULT.  Even if you are in high school, but 18 years old, YOU ARE AN ADULT.  That means I became an adult at the end of my junior year of high school.

That is one of my biggest pet peeves is people calling us in our late teens or 20s kids or boys or girls.

[Joe Biden 2020]

18.  At that age you are a man or a woman, no longer a boy or a girl.  You become an adult at that age. 

Says who?

Anything earlier and you run a higher risk of non-voters because most 15-17 year olds probably care nothing about politics and don't watch the news at all. 

So what if many of them don't vote? A great many people above that age don't care about politics either and don't vote - that's hardly an argument to set it at 18 or any age. Indeed that's an argument towards assessment on non-age related grounds.

The law says you become an adult at midnight the morning of your 18th birthday.  Whether you act like an adult is a different story.  Heck, as you well know, there can still be 40 year olds who act like little kids and 14 year olds who act like grown, mature adults.

The issue of non-interest politics really doesn't make a whole lot of different to me, but I want to try to reduce, as best I can, the non-informed votes.  I like the fact they are voting, because it is our civil duty, but PLEASE try to know something about what your voting on.

So, I said all that to say this, I like it where it is at 18.  I could see moving it back to 17, but really not any earlier than 17 and definitely not any later than 18.

[Joe Biden 2020]

I might like to see it vary with the office; perhaps something like 18 for U.S. House, 30 for U.S. Senate, and 35 for president.

Huh?  I'm confused...  you mean i have to be 35 years of age just to vote for President?  Thats the age you have to be to BE President.

Let's leave the voting age at 18 for all offices.

Jas,

I agree with the idea of some sort of litmus test for high school students.  Leave the voting age at 18, but if the 16-year-old or junior in high school can prove through some kind of litmus test that he or she knows a sufficient amount of current events and the way things work in Washington or their other elected offices in which they vote, then they should be able to vote.  I would put a requirement that you must be a junior in high school or 16 years of age.  Now, if you can vote, but you are under 18, I would put in the stipulation that you must attend with someone over age 21, who can legally vote present with them.  (The adult doesn't have to, and should not tell the teen how to vote, but be present with them).  If you are 18 or over, then go on and vote by yourself.  The adult presence is just to try to weed out as much horseplay and recklessness as can be weeded out considering they are teenagers who probably haven't heard the meaning of the phrase "calm, cool, and collected".