When making group decisions – including voting at the local and national levels – why not solicit input from the people to whom the future matters the most? From Washington, DC, Craig tells us about a group of students making the case for lowering the voting age.
This video has captions. To see them, click CC on the video screen.
Here’s what Craig says in the video
Hi everybody!
Hey, it’s Craig Freshley here, in Washington DC in front of the National Portrait Gallery. I attended a conference here: the National Conference on Citizenship, and I heard a group of high school students make a pretty compelling case to lower the voting age to 16.
They said that if you lower the voting age it will make young people much more aware of national issues and national politics. It’ll help them be educated. Good habits start young, so why not start a voting habit when people are teenagers?
It would bring politicians into the high schools to help high school students understand national issues – and by the way, they would also become educated on local issues because they’d be voting for town councilors and school board members.
I also heard some polling data that, if given the vote, 16- to 18-year-olds would likely vote in much higher proportions then any other age cohort. Look, whether we’re talking democratic elections or for any kind of group, you can’t go wrong with soliciting and encouraging all of the input available – especially from those to whom the future matters most, especially from those who most want to participate.
I hope this helps you help your group make good decisions.
