Should the voting age be lowered to 16?

1. Should the voting age be lowered to 16? By: Gavin Liddick

2. Why should 16-year-olds be able to vote? • At that age, most teenagers can work, pay taxes, drive and be charged as adults for crimes • They can even be sentenced to DEATH • If the same above applies to all other men and women ages 18 and above, shouldn’t 16-year-olds be able to vote also?

3. Rights of An American Citizen • Age to drive- • Age to purchase tobacco products- • Age to purchase and consume alcohol- • Age to gamble- • Age to vote-

4. Survey • A survey was taken about the voting age. Here are the results of that survey: • This question was taken by survey takers to find out their age • One-third of survey takers are 14-16 years old. • Two-thirds of survey takers are 17-21 year olds. • This question asked the survey takers if the voting age should be lowered to 16. • 100% of survey takers said “yes.”

5. Top 3 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age • Youth suffer under a double standard of having adult responsibilities but not rights • An example of this is when the youth are tried for adult crimes and are considered mature, responsible adults, yet they are considered silly, brainless kids when they want to vote. • Lowering the voting age is the just, fair way to set things straight. • Youth pay taxes, live under our laws, they should have the vote • Just like all other Americans, young Americans pay taxes. Teens pay an estimated $9.7 Billion dollars in sales taxes alone to state, local, and federal governments, yet they have absolutely no say over how much is taken. • This is what the American Revolution was fought over; this is taxation without representation. • Politicians will represent their interests if youth can vote • Why should politicians care about the needs and wishes of youth when they have no ability to vote for or against them? Youth feel alienated from politics and politicians, lowering the voting age will include them in the process. • Lowering the voting age will give politicians a real reason to respect the desires of young people.

6. Taking Action! • If you are interested, you can go to this website to help take action in lowering the voting age in Florida. It may not be in the whole United States, but you have to start somewhere. • http://www.voteat16.com/

7. Voting History • The rules for eligibility have changed substantially since America's founding, and continue to change today. When America was young, only white males over the age of 21 were allowed to vote. Some of the landmark changes since then: • The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were passed following the Civil War, in the later 1860s. They extended civil rights and suffrage (voting rights) to former slaves. The legal right to vote for African-Americans was established, but numerous restrictions kept many blacks from actually voting until the 1960s Voting Rights Act. • The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920. This amendment resulted from an international movement of "Suffragettes". Women still lacked the right to vote in Switzerland until the 1970s, and as of 1990 women could not vote in Kuwait. • The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. This occurred in 1971, amid the Vietnam War, when 18-year-olds were routinely drafted and sent to war without the right to vote. • These were all important changes in voting rights, and one day it is very possible that the voting age could be lowered to 16.

8. ~~~~THE END~~~~ • I hope that you enjoyed this presentation, and I hope that I have pursauded you to believe that the voting age should be lowered. • And if you are already 18 or older, don’t forget to vote!