Should Children Be Allowed to Vote?

Should children be allowed to vote?

No? Why? Is it because children don’t know anything about politics? That children aren’t even capable of telling the difference in addition and subtraction, so how could they know the difference between a democratic and republican? Well whose to say an 18-year-old or 49-year-old knows the difference any better. 

Scholar, Seth E. Blumenthal identifies children as the “Silent Majority.” In Western democracies, children represent more than 20 percent of the population (Olsson). A percentage of citizens unable to voice their opinions. Now the argument exists that children are unable to vote due to their lack of knowledge that will be gain as they grow up. Yet, a contrasting point of view argues that the system of age blocking isn’t fair. The limitation that a 15-year-old wouldn’t be able to cast a vote based on politics because they don’t have enough knowledge is false. Young adults and children have greater access to tools necessary to educate them on the politics around them. In the cases of young adults belonging to minority groups, the realities of life are introduced earlier on and the need to know what ways your future can be better impacted through politics is necessary.  

Realistically, Stefan Olsson introduces the idea of a standardized test to be taken by everyone to see if they’d qualify to be a voter to prove whether or not a child should be allowed to vote. Since the idea of a lesser age is what leads to voters being unqualified. “Being uninformed is thus not entirely the same as making an irrational choice” (Olsson). There are adult voters who vote blindly on influence, whether it is the appearance of the candidate, their post on twitter, or even the designs of their campaign. Yet, their votes get to be carried out and counted without them having further knowledge. So what is the difference? Is a child no different from the time in American history that women or people of different skin color not allowed to vote? 

If there is this push of mindset that children shouldn’t be allowed to vote because they don’t think of politics, then when will they think of politics? Is this why the numbers of young voters so low? Have people been embedded to think since they were a child that they shouldn’t vote because their vote doesn’t matter? If they don’t know enough about politics, they shouldn’t bother to vote? A domino effect based on the opinions of adults limiting children. 

Blumenthal, Seth E. “Children of the ‘Silent Majority’: Richard Nixon’s Young Voters for the President, 1972.” Vol. 27, no. 2, 2015, pp. 337–363.

Olsson, Stefan. "Children's Suffrage: A Critique of the Importance of Voters' Knowledge for the Well-Being of Democracy." The International Journal of Children's Rights 16, no. 1 (2008): 55-76.