When a bill was recently introduced in the California Legislature to lower the minimum voting age to 14, the response was weariness reminiscent of someone unsure of being duped on April Fools Day. One perplexed legislator succinctly but appropriately summarized it as “the nuttiest idea I’ve ever heard.”
However, the author of SB 1606, State Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose), is very serious. And despite certain aspects of SB 1606 that make it unlikely to ever pass in the Legislature, not to mention downright silly (such as allowing 14-year-olds one-fourth of a vote), critics would be wiser to see SB 1606 as a distant cousin of more serious forms of voting-age legislation that are real threats to the American political system and its youth.
Legislation aimed at lowering the minimum voting age has been proposed in numerous states, including Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, Ohio, Florida and Iowa. Though these bills are more tempered than SB 1606 (most of them call for a minimum age of 16 or 17), if passed, they could serve as a platform from which lawmakers in California can be expected to mold their own, more realistic and passable bill or constitutional amendment in the future.
The main goal of lowering the voting age is to spark voter turnout. Yet 18 to 24-year-olds are already far less likely to vote than older Americans — only 33 percent turnout, according the Center for Voting and Democracy, compared to 49 percent for 25 to 44-year-olds and 67 percent for those over 65. Lowering the voting age to encompass citizens even less politically aware than 18-year-olds is unlikely to spur more people to vote. Furthermore, teenagers are too immature and inexperienced to handle an important decision-making processes like voting — the very reason why the voting age has been set at 18.
For many people, it is not until they reach college that they enter a political atmosphere in which they can openly discuss issues in an intellectual, free-thinking environment. Teenagers are highly dependent on their legal guardians and their views are easily manipulated by a clever campaign, pressures from family or peers, and media outlets such as MTV.
Lowering the voting age would accomplish a higher voter turnout only at the expense of voter quality. After all, how many high school students, especially those who have not yet taken a government class, are well-informed about current events and politics? Anyone with a young sibling would probably scoff at the idea that a 14-year-old is capable of making a well-informed, objective and independent political decision.
Proponents of SB 1606 claim that the bill would inspire and prepare youth to responsibly involve themselves in politics. But college seems a more fitting atmosphere to introduce young adults to participatory politics. The age of 18 carries with it numerous new responsibilities, and it is the beginning of true independence. Thus, 18 is a reasonable age at which individuals should be empowered with the weighty responsibility associated with suffrage.
However, even if lowering the voting age did have some effect of politically mobilizing teenagers, would that be a preferable outcome? Teenagers are already overwhelmed with the pressures of school, extracurricular activities and growing up. There is no reason to add civic duty to a teenager’s list of responsibilities, especially when he or she is unprepared to shoulder the burden of having the vote. American youths are already rushed through childhood, and it’s unnecessary to quicken this push to adulthood.
Then what of the sob stories about 17-year-old seniors whose birthdays are a day after the registration deadline? The phrase “tough luck” comes to mind first, quickly followed by, “there is always next year.” No matter what the voting age limit, there will always be someone who gets left out.
Even if, however, a teenager is so interested in politics that he or she cannot wait for his or her 18th birthday, there are countless ways to get involved in politics that do not result in the “I Voted” sticker. Voting is a basic and superficial form of political participation. Those ineligible to vote can still influence politics by volunteering time or money for a candidate or party, going to protests, and participating in countless other forms of civic involvement.
It is doubtful that the extreme catastrophes predicted by opponents of SB 1606 would occur if the voting age was lowered. Britney Spears would probably not be elected president, and the national anthem would not be rewritten by rapper 50 Cent. Instead, such a bill would unnecessarily rush teenagers toward adulthood, placing an important decision in the hands of individuals who are not intellectually and socially prepared to make it.
