OPINION: The voting age should be lowered to 16

Editorial by Lily Schroeder

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Young people have been at the forefront of politics many times in history, but now more than ever, young people are the most affected by issues going unnoticed by lawmakers.

Today there are new environmental, social and economic risks uniquely experienced by young people, such as climate change, automation, artificial intelligence and a cost of living crisis. These risks “remain unaddressed by lawmakers and therefore have an inadequate policy response,” according to Policy Director and Senior Researcher for the Berkeley Institute for Young Americans, Erin Heys.

Our current members of Congress have an average age of 58, compared to the United States average age of citizens at 38.8 years old. “By lowering the voting age (young people) could benefit from electing younger representatives,” senior Steven Zhang said.

Despite the lack of focus on issues from lawmakers, some do recognize the importance of young people’s voices. Representative Grace Meng from the 6th District of New York introduced legislation to lower the voting age to 16 in January of 2023, hoping to replace the 26th Amendment that holds the minimum voting age at 18.

“We have seen the influence young people in our nation have on trends, political movements and elections,” Meng said in a Jan. 6 press release.

Movements such as the fight against climate change are currently led by young people, yet many of them do not have the power to vote.

“A lot of younger people have lost a lot of faith in the governmental and voting system so there can definitely be some benefit with lowering the voting age and getting younger generations involved in the government,” Zhang said.

Additionally, research has shown that if young adults vote before they leave home, they are more likely to continue voting when living by themselves.

“When young adults leave home, the influence of their parents’ strong voting habits decreases while the weaker voting patterns among their peers have a greater impact,” according to a study at the University of Copenhagen on turnout among first-time voters.

In 2007, Austria lowered its voting age from 18 to 16. In 2017, 10 years after the voting age was lowered, 16 to 17-year-olds had a 90% voter turnout in Austria’s national election, compared to a 75% voter turnout of ages 18 to 19 according to a study commissioned by the Austrian Parliament on first-time voters.

U.S. cities that have lowered the voting age for their municipal elections have seen similar results, as seen in Takoma Park, Maryland, the first city in the U.S. to grant 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in 2013. In its first election after the change, 16 and 17-year-old voters voted at twice the rate of those 18 and up, according to a study by Vote16USA.

Since 2013, four other cities have lowered their voting ages to 16, three of them also in Maryland.

Some argue that 16 and 17-year-olds lack the political maturity to make informed voting decisions or that they do not have the cognitive ability to vote.

Yet research has proven that these stereotypes are not true.

“By the age of 15, young adults have the same ability for logical reasoning, longterm planning, memory and verbal fluency as those 18+—all skills that are required to make an informed decision to vote,” Heys said.

Research conducted in other countries that have lowered the voting age have found that 16 and 17-year-olds express similar levels of political maturity as those 18 and older surrounding topics such as political knowledge, political interest and other pro-civic attitudes, according to Heys.