Reduce Voting Age to 16 Essay Sample

50 years ago, 18-year-olds got the right to vote, so why not 16-year-olds? Before the voting age was originally lowered, 18-year-olds were being conscripted to fight in wars but still didn’t have the right to vote. This led to mass protests which pressured Congress to pass the 26th amendment, lowering the age limit from 21 to 18. However, it is not the same with 16-year-olds. They never got conscripted to fight in a bloody war; their biology isn't ready, and they didn’t know the gruesome reality of politics. The voting age should not be lowered any more than 18, because teens aren’t biologically and mentally ready to be under that kind of strain to have a valid voice in politics.

In implementing the amendment to lower the age limit to 16, we allow people who don’t have a fully developed brain to make decisions that affect us all. For context, the part of the brain that makes rational decisions is found in the frontal lobe, also known as the prefrontal cortex, but there is also the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that controls emotions. According to journalist Jeff Jacoby, "Teens more often rely on the amygdala." The reason for this isn’t that they don’t want to, it's because they can't since the prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully develop until around the 20s. Are we going to let people who choose things based on their emotions determine the fate of all of us? Emotions can lead to false beliefs, which can again influence decisions that aren’t logical. Senator Ayanna Pressley states, "A sixteen-year-old in 2019 will bring with them fears that their father’s insulin will run out before the next paycheck." Such things can influence emotions, which will make them more likely to fall for false hopes like free healthcare without realizing the downsides of it, such as increased taxes. Without the proper biology, 16-year-olds cannot be relied on to make the decisions that everyone relies on.

A common argument against not lowering the legal voting age is that teens are mature enough to vote. According to Senator Ayanna Pressley, 16-year-olds do many things that people who can vote do, so they should be able to vote and should have the power to decide laws on gun violence, immigration, and climate change. This, however, isn’t true. Why should teens be able to decide laws on gun violence if they can’t even hold a gun? The answer is simple: they shouldn't. Many laws exist to prevent an immature audience from doing things that require a more mature mindset or more logical thinking, just like holding a gun. According to journalist Jeff Jacoby in his article "Lower the voting age? Let's raise it instead" If people had so much faith in high school sophomores, why not also lower the minimum age to drink, buy drugs, and buy guns? Why not let them enlist in the military? If they were so mature, why not let them get the same criminal prosecution that older, more mature people get? Again, the answer is simple: we don’t. There is a reason every movie has a rating, including an R rating, which restricts people younger than 18 from watching it. Just like movies, video games also have ratings, which can prevent people too young to play. If 16-year-olds were mature, they wouldn’t have so many restrictions. Consider a world in which we allow 16-year-olds to do drugs, possess firearms, and consume alcohol; the result would be chaos, and voting would be the cherry on top. We can conclude that teens aren’t mature enough to do the things 18+ people can do, and voting is one of them.