Kimball Konception: Voting age should be lowered

Andy Kimball
Junior Editor

Imagine two students at the high school.

Student “A” is a student a student who is informed about political issues, watches debates and is very knowledgeable about the current presidential candidates.

Student “B” is not informed on political issues and only knows a couple of characteristics of a few candidates.
In this situation student “B” will be 18 and will vote in the upcoming election, and student “A” will be 17 and unable to vote.

At the high school this is a common situation that can be very unfair. The point of a democratic election is to have the public make a choice regarding who will represent them in the government’s executive branch. This works best when more voters are informed on political candidates and issues.

A way to get more informed voters to vote in the election is by letting 16 and 17 year old voters who are informed vote in elections.

A way to know the competence of these younger voters is to have a voting test. This test would only apply to U.S. citizens under 18 that want to vote in the upcoming election.

This is something that is different from past voting or literacy “tests” because in this case people would be showcasing their knowledge and earning their right to vote even though they are constitutionally under age.

Also the test will be about what stances candidates take on issues and about current events that correspond with those issues, therefore making the test bipartisan.

This could be changed through a Constitutional amendment, which would be very difficult but is possible.

This is important because if this change is made then this would add more informed voters which would help our nation as a whole make a more informed decision when choosing our president.

After all a democracy falls apart with uninformed constituents.