Why are the requirements for being US President so different from those to vote?

[AviatorTom]

Comparing the qualifications for President and Voters...

President - must be born in the US; Voter has no such requirement

President - must have lived in the US for 14 years; Voter has no residency requirement

President - must be at least 35; Voter must be 18 or older

Why are the qualifications so different? Meaning almost anyone can vote for President even if they can't be President.

[CrazyGirl2]

Because the president is one man (so far), and he is the most powerful man on the planet. Whereas, as important as it is to vote, each voter only has approximately 1/180,000,000th of the total power of the entire electorate. The president has 100% of the absolute authority over the executive branch of government. He should not have any allegiance to any foreign power, so being born here and having lived here for at least 14yrs seems (to the founders) at least, to suffice as proof of allegiance to The United States of America. As for the age requirement… our brain is not fully developed until age 25, so again, 14yrs of being an adult with a fully developed brain seemed to them to suffice as enough time to develop the life experience and wisdom to wield the almighty powers of the executive.

[purplepoppy]

A quick Google shows there are 209,128,094 adults in the US. This means you have 1/209,128,094 say in who runs the country. So even if you're a compete imbecile it doesn't really matter.

[exitseven]

The founding fathers recognized that there is an intangible quality that people have that mostly depend on if they were born in a place and spent a considerable amount of their life there. It is the difference of being OF a place as opposed to being FROM a place.

[OlderAndWiser]

Being a qualfied voter in the US means you have one vote but there are over 168,000,000 registered voters, so the effect of that one vote is very diluted. On the other hand, there is only one president; why shouldn't there be additional qualifications?

[Amy10223]

You need to be a US citizen in order to vote for president. Otherwise you can only vote in local elections, so that statement isn't quite correct.

Why? because I assume at that age someone is considered capable of leading our country. But you also need to add that some qualities that society looks for in a would-be presdient--such as integrity, courage, and other things:

They provide clarity. ...
They listen and allow others to be heard. ...
They value conversations. ...
They model desired behaviors. ...
They encourage healthy conflict. ...
They create an environment of emotional safety. ...
They have high levels of self-awareness. ...
They empower others.

Taken from Google, 9 Things Great Presidents and Leaders Have In Common

[SnowedIn]

That actually makes sense to me. I think the bar should be very low to be a participant in the process (voting) but the requirements should be far more stringent to serve as President.

[NathanDavis]

because the implications of being either are so vastly different...