Should the voting age be raised to 30?

[Siri137]

Or even 35? Young people tend to not know all that much about how the real world works, and tend to allow their naive assumptions and beliefs guide them when the time comes to vote.

[WhiteSteve]

The issue is military enlistment age. You can’t ask kids barely out of high school who might just be looking for any semblance of a future, a cool uniform, and the lure of being respected by civilians (or just to be drafted against their will in a Selective Service scenario) to go halfway across the world and maybe get their head blown off in the name of some American cause that probably isn’t even what they’re telling us it is, and then be like “oh, but you can’t vote til 30, if you make it.”

[MisterWack]

No, If anything I feel that it should be younger so we can have a bigger margin of Americans getting involved in the political system. Young voters feel unheard, that they will never be represented, that their govt body simply won’t listen. Young voters have a bright hopeful future, I always remember the quote “The children are the future” so give them a damn vote already!

Making it 30+ years would deter more people from voting / feel like their voices cannot be heard. Maybe there would be worse civil unrest based as a potential outcome.

[monorprise]

@MisterWack Why is having a larger number of people voting a good thing? Most people only care about their own lives and don't want to spend the time and effort necessary to vote intelligently.

Young people haven't been around long enough to understand the issue even if they were interested, nor those under 25 developed enough to have a fair chance at fair judgement with or without said experience.

Fortunately the vast majority of them are too busy figuring out life to bother taking the time to vote anyway. You go below 18 and your basically giving the vote to the goverment schools to even more line their own pockets.

[MisterWack]

@monorprise
Going to cut you off, it is a good thing since it allows the youth to have a say. Here is a good example of the 30 yr bullcrap… Those that turn 18 that would normally vote or those who are 20 who already voted would be pushed back… That is silencing their voices. If you move it back / relax it, it is more voices. My stance is more voices, more votes = more of a Democracy of BY the people FOR the people.

[Siri137]

But the government never listens to us anyway, so...

[Girlsontop]

I've thought about this and I think that people who can vote should have had decent education (high school diploma perhaps) and about 3-5 years of real world experience after their education is complete.

[snowboarder720]

If higher education is what will disqualify voters then over half of Trumps supporters will be lost.

[snowboarder720]

www.pewresearch.org/.../

[chrissykerdock]

it should be the your drafting boys once you were 18 but the voting age was 21 so it was lowered obviously

[sawno]

No fixed age, 3 years after you have stopped going to an education facility and had real world experience. It took me 3 years to unbrainwash myself which is why I set that as the benchmark.

[Siri137]

That actually might be a better idea.

[ApplePie409]

Good answer. That might get Joey to stop illegally stealing money to bribe kids to vote for his sorry ass

[sawno]

@ApplePie409 I thought about this stuff a lot haha. Its not even joey, its all the proffesors using their students as a voting proxy. You can teach them anything since they haven't broken out of the "What I learn in school is true" phase yet.

[Siri137]

I broke out of that phase when I was about seven or eight, and I just assumed it was a natural part of the maturation process.

[Chazmatazz269]

It hasn’t always been this way. It has more to do with privilege and entitlement than age. Skools used to offer civics classes and mock government panels. Children were taught responsibility and accountability young. I had my first job by twelve. I SAVED the first $600 i earned from working. Something tells me most people under thirty can’t honestly say that. I had taxable income by the time i was fifteen. I wasn’t given anything but life, and i’ve had to work hard for everything else ever since. Ell oh ell!

[BCA6010]

Unless you jack it straight to only the deceased being allowed to vote, I don't see the Democrats getting onboard with it.

In seriousness, no. Age alone doesn't really define whether or not someone is coherent enough to cast a vote, and if we aren't able to do something as basic as demand proof of citizenship and identity in order to cast a ballot, then creating additional qualifiers is a waste of time.

[Lionman95]

No political education needs to improve and there needs to be places where people are taught the political system and what parties have in mind. The more you exclude young people from voting the less they care about politics and are not willing to contribute to the community. Young and old people alike follow their own assumptions when they live their life.

Voting for good candidates is a question of effort and maturity not that so much a question of age.

[Staximus]

Yeah. Young people are too idealistic and not living in reality, like the idiot ones that still think communism can work because some other idealistic idiot said so in a book they read.

[Siri137]

People should never believe anything simply because it was written in a book.

[DrPepper12]

Yet they pay taxes without representation. Didn't we fight a war over that? It's bullshit the under 18 crowd gets no say. It's even bigger bullshit for the states that withhold the right to vote from ex felons who have done their time. They should be allowed to vote while in jail!

[Anonymous]

Yes, and ideally limited to people who have some kind of vested interest in the community they are voting for influence over. IE: Permanent Residency.

It should also exclude people with a conflict of interest such as being a goverment employee directly or indirectly.

[Amur8711]

I don't agree, but understand why. The problem is with how our work works it has pushed real world responsibility to older ages allowing us not to need to make these decisions making us less mature. But it's not fair to allow ages18-30 to be forced to serve and die when they can't vote yet.

[KostasKouvalis]

30's a little high. Maybe 25 when our brains are fully developed. But SOME sort of reform needs to take place. Half the population shouldn't have to suffer because the other half are brain dead zombies.

[Kingofkings1992]

But your vote doesn’t matter. The president is already determined before the election happens

[Rangers]

I don't know about 30, but there should be a test to ensure that the voter is properly informed, before they cast a vote.

The problem is that such a test would certainly be politically biased one way or the other

[DarkLegacy]

Well seeing a some of the feminists on here don't think we become adults until then why not. Perhaps just for the women though as apparently us men in are 30s are predators if we have sex with them when they are younger adults.

[NathanDavis]

if you raise it up to 35... then you should also limit voting below the age of 55

[Siri137]

That's an idea to consider as well.

[NathanDavis]

but it would most likely corrupt... those within that age bracket

[Siri137]

Going by that logic, everyone over the age of 17 is already corrupt simply because they're allowed to vote.

[NathanDavis]

and in many ways we are...

it's been a long while since Politicians do nothing but attack and insult and even lie about everyone else but them

which is the most corrupted concept of democracy... and if people are voting for that, in a way, is a corrupted vote

[NathanDavis]

and also... by complying and favoring an only-two-options voting system, we're corrupting our society and politics... because, pretty much 49% get screwed, while the 51% percent have a blast doing it so

which is also a corrupted approach to the "by the people"

[dustybiker2]

I think it would be better to limit age on running for presidents. These last two are too old to run a country.

[strateguy632]

keep the status quo. if people are idiots they will pay MUCH MORE for groceries like now under biden, then they will learn to vote trump.

[BeetleBro2000]

I assume you're talking about some place that's not the USA, because that would be extremely against our national values here.

[BonzoInBitburg]

Only taxpayers should be able to vote. If you're not a productive tax paying member of society, you don't have any skin in the game

[handsomelad70]

Absolutely not !!! PLENTY of older folk, even us seniors, don't know the world's workings. Just teach REAL civics from early grades, NOT this brain-rotting pablum which passes for a curriculum most schools spoon-feed youngsters.

[Apple1996]

Nah especially since most of the younger gen doesn't even vote until they get older

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Nope and won't matter anyways because the system is designed to only work for the greedy and talented, besides most people don't understand nothing about the world nor what a country needs as most people are stupid anyways.

[fonduegirl]

Raise it however you want. I don't care. The whole voting thing is a huge illusion

[Siri137]

I don't care one way or the other. And yes, you're right. As someone once put it, "If voting actually made any difference to anything, then they wouldn't allow it".

[fonduegirl]

For real

[rosemilk]

i think 30 is pushing it a bit much. i'd say try 21. or if you really wanna bump the age, 25

[DJB72]

No, but there should be a maximum age for candidates. Must be under 70 during the whole of their first term for example.

[jahaims]

If you can go to war you should be able to vote. Most adults are morons that only think they know more. Unless you have 100s of hours to deep dive multiple topics you aren't informed.

[AviatorTom]

No, we should go back to the 1700s, where only white landowners could vote. 🙉🙊🙈

[RetroReviews]

I would say 21 if you're old enough to drink you should be old enough to vote

[JesseP1nk]

But why 30? Not 40, 50, 60, 70, 80? I know lot of 35 year olds who acts like they are 13. And i know teens who know world better than 40 year olds. Its about education.

[exitseven]

No, the whole idea of being old enough to serve in the military still makes sense to me.

[Massageman]

While we're at it, let's make sure that only legal residents of the country can vote. ONCE!

[blondfrog]

Age is not an issue, its a matter of intellect.

[jjj101010]

I’d say those who pay enough tax should get to vote as it’s their money which gets spent

[Astarlessnightsky]

Nope. Let people vote on their own future.

[MacDaddyRico]

Why?

Voting's a joke, anyway.

[BLP11520]

No, what in the world?

[boobliker]

put it down to 16

[eagle1951]

why?