If Teens Could Vote
written April 28th, 2004

Recently, Senator John Vasconcellos proposed a bill that, if voted into law by adults, would lower the voting age for state and local elections in California. Technically, the votes of 14-17 year olds would only count as fractions of an adult vote. This has caused an outcry from those who feel that teens are not ready to vote. Numerous articles have attempted to attack the intellect and reasoning capacity of those under the current legal age (see Teens Inferior, Say Superior Adult Experts). On the other side, many teens feel deprived of their civil liberties. So, what would really happen if teens could vote?

Some people argue that "kids" (thinking that 15 and 5 are one in the same) would just vote for ice cream or whatever. Yet, where is that on the ballot? Those same people would then say that young people are too easily influenced. They're obviously overlooking the whole principle of repeating negative attack adds before an election. It's adults that those adds are aimed at and it's adults that are being so easily influenced. If you hear something often enough, no matter what age you are, you'll start to think it's true (unless the personality that you were born with is strong enough to fight it). Yet, is it really true?

At the last presidential election, I was three months shy of being legally able to vote. At the time, I would have voted for Bush (or indeed any Republican). This time around, I plan to vote for Kerry (or indeed anyone but a Republican). Some would argue that such a dramatic change in political views is evidence that young people lack the ability to make a logically reasoned decision when it comes to voting. The truth is that many (possibly most) people of any age in this country lack logical reasoning when it comes to their political views. The difference is that younger people, especially those who are still in school, are more apt to learn and change. The problem lies with those who feel that holding a view for a few decades somehow makes it true. This is often the came with groups of adults who have never questioned their beliefs and feel that anyone who does question his beliefs is somehow either weak or wicked. This is how a few older men in the South still feel that Blacks are somehow inferior. It's the same willful ignorance that kept women or people under 21 from voting simply because that's the way it had always been and few people actually stopped to question it. A stubborn inability to make reasoned decisions that question a long held belief is not evidence that an entire class or people are inferior and should not be allowed to vote. Many older adults stubbornly stick to a biased view that blinds them to the truth (for example, the biased view that teens are inferior to them), but I'm not calling for all adults to be denied the right to vote for that reason. I'm calling for everyone to have equal rights.

Within the lifetime of many adults today, those under 21 years of age were denied the right to vote. They could be drafted and sent off to war, but they still had no rights or say in the matter. They were simply the ones fighting the wars. The 40 and up crowd were the ones creating the laws and making the wars. The same arguments were made back then, that young people aren't capable of voting intelligently. It's a roundabout way of saying that intelligence and age go hand in hand. Clearly, that's not true. Issues such as education and taxes effect everyone, including teens. Many teens work and pay taxes, but because of discrimination, are taxed without representation. Many (if not most) Americans of any age don't understand issues from bonds to budgets. They rely on other people who they like (possibly because they were raised believing in a certain political party) to tell them how to vote. For a long time, women were not allowed to vote because there was a common belief among the men of the time that women could not make rational decisions because they were too emotionally driven and weak. Today, women's votes make up half of all the votes in this country.

Counting a 14-year-old's vote as only 1/4 of an adult vote is reminiscent of the fact that the Constitution only counted Blacks as a fraction of a person. For years, Blacks were slaves to their masters in a similar way to how teens are still property of their parents. Even after the abolition of slavery, Blacks were still denied equal voting rights. Many people figured (or hoped) that most Blacks were still illiterate and therefore incapable of voting. However, regardless of how few might vote, it was still unfair to deny all Blacks that right. The same hold's true today. One of the arguments against lowering the voting age is that teens would be too busy or disinterested to vote. However, what about those who are informed and interested? Should they be denied their rights? One of the reasons that young people aren't more politically involved is that they are constantly told that they don't matter or how childlike they supposedly are. As I said earlier, if you hear something often enough it sticks. And, why stop at counting teens as fractions of adults or denying the right to vote to preteens? Why not treat everyone fairly? If some people aren't educated enough to vote, we should educate them. Perhaps not many people under a certain age would vote. Most Americans don't speak out against the government, so should we all be denied the right to free speech if not enough of us are going to use it?

It seems ridiculous that we should even be having this discussion; that one group of people would be so unwilling to grant another group of pople the same fundamental rights that they enjoy. Yet, it's been happening for years. Perhaps they're simply afraid that issues that effect young people will actually be decided by young people. Who knows, eventually teens may want a say in their own lives and want the respect they deserve as human beings. They may even want to choose their own religion or things like that. I'm sure it's frightening for adults. I can only imagine how it felt for the slave owners when Blacks were freed and (gulp!) given a say in how their lives and their government were run. Still, the ultimate goal is not to take rights away from any group of people. It is to give the same rights to everyone. It may be a scary concept, but there are few nobler goals or visions. One day, we'll have a world where everyone, regardless of race, gender, age, attractions or anything else, is treating equally and fairly. Everyone is an individual and everyone is different. The one thing we all have in common is that we're all human. It's time we put aside our differences and accept that fact. Then, and only then, will this world truly be a better place.

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