Is It Time To Lower The Voting Age? Nancy Pelosi Invites Feedback

Nancy Pelosi spoke at the Generation Progress summit, and one of the issues she addressed was the voting age. Currently, in the U.S., voting rights begin at age 18, but Pelosi spoke of lowering that age to 17, or even 16, stressing that young registration was more important than young voting. She spoke of efforts to get teens to register before leaving school, and of the passion that teenagers often have for issues.

An entire transcript of Pelosi’s speech is available at the Democratic Leader. The portion relevant to voting age is reproduced below.

“Reform our campaign system to empower small donors; and empower voters with a renewed and strengthened Voting Rights Act, removing obstacles of participation. I am all for – I’d love to hear your thoughts on it; I know you’ll let me know – for lowering the voting age to high school age, whether that’s 16 or 17.”

The statements have been treated as somewhat shocking, but it wouldn’t be the first time that the voting age was lowered in America — and certainly isn’t the first time that voting rights have been expanded by new legislation.

Most people are aware that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — yes, that recently! — affirmed the right of black citizens to vote, and that women’s voting rights were similarly affirmed by the 19th Amendment affirmed voting rights for women.

However, you may not be aware that the voting age was lowered too — from 21 to 18. According to History, this was largely related to war efforts and the argument that someone who was “of age: for going off to fight for his country was also old enough to have voting rights.

This began state by state, beginning with Georgia in 1943, and was confirmed by the ratification of the 26th amendment in 1970.

That the voting age has been lowered before is not, of course, sufficient evidence that it should be done again. Voting rights were extended to young adults based largely on the realization that they were being asked to act as adults, to live and sacrifice, and in too many cases, dies as adults, and that a person old enough to give his life for his country was old enough to have a voice in that country.

Lowering the voting age again would necessitate a conversation about how aware 16 to 18-year-olds are of politics and the world around them, whether they are capable of taking a political stand, and how politics and elections affect them.

For the latter, there’s no question that recent decisions regarding curriculum and cuts to education funding affect kids, and that teens of these particular ages would be greatly affected by certain items in discussion right now — like taxpayer-funded college education. They’re also affected at least as much as adults by decisions regarding environmental protections, questions of human rights, and decisions about war and foreign policy.

Are teens aware enough, though, at this age, to understand the majority of the issues they’d be affecting by voting? There are certainly a number who are. See North Carolina’s Madison Kimrey, for example, speaking in the video below. At age 12, she was addressing the state’s governor about voting rights.

Of course, not all of America’s youth are so aware of the issues at her age. Then again, not all Americans are as aware, even well into adulthood.

To lower the voting age again isn’t as simple as a political party suggesting it. It would require a national conversation, and a widespread consensus, and should certainly include the voices of those who would be most directly affected. However, it’s fair to recognize that young people are getting involved in politics, and it’s necessary to realize that lowering the voting age isn’t totally revolutionary — we’ve done it before.