should kids get to vote?

aol news ^ | Sept. 17 2003 | Geraldine Sealey

[weegee]

No. The only way to secure the right to vote is if the right to vote is entirely unconditional. You state it in as plain as terms as possible: the government WILL NOT prevent anyone from voting who has reached the age of 18.

The right to vote DOES require citizenship. It also precludes residency in to states (you can only vote in one of them legally).

It also can be removed if you have been sentenced to a felony.

The right to vote is definitely conditional and we are well within established criteria to determine those conditions.

[thegreatbeast]

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Trailerpark Badass]

The amount of labor and manpower it would take to read and count the ballots, the greater potential for abuse, the greater potential for error.

I would agree that machine counting theoretically reduces opportunity for error and corruption, but only to the degree that the humans programming and operating those machines are free from both. As 2000 proved, machine balloting is not very transparent; computer balloting will be even less so. I'm sure there are political operatives who know quite well how to game those systems.

As for the time and manpower involved, a small price to pay, IMHO.

[weegee]

I can't believe there are conservatives who actually want to government to regulate who can and can't vote!

Felons can't vote. The government already does say who can and can't vote.

I also think that voters and officials who try to commit vote fraud should lose their voting priviledges. There are whole lists of vote fraud threads on FR. Little is ever done to prosecute the violators.

[biblewonk]

I dint get past the title, and wont.

[newgeezer]

Sadly, unless I'm mistaken, the courts outlawed literacy tests a long time ago.

I can only guess there was some sort of grand and meritorious reason for it, such as the possibility that the governing powers could somehow force people into illiteracy, and effectively deny them the vote.

[Viva Le Dissention]

Yes, but age and citizenship are easily met and entirely objective standards. A four year old doesn't have the intellectual capacity to understand the issues, and I recognize that there must be a proper age standard someplace.

While your reply to this may be that, of course, there are some mentally retarded people out there that meet the age and citizenship requirements that have the intellectual capacity of the average four-year old, my response to this is that:
a) the number of these people are so small in number simply to not make any statistical difference. Moreover, the percentage of these people that are both registered to vote and who actually vote is, no doubt, nearly zero.
b) Moreover, an IQ test is again a basically subjective examination. I'd rather run the risk that a few nitwits are voting than to allow the government to condition the right to vote on subjective means.

I recognize that voting rights can be stripped by a felony conviction. I feel this is unconstitutional and the government shouldn't have the power to do so.

[Woahhs]

Expressions of incredulity are not an explaination. What's so baffling about not wanting policy dictated by the mob?

[Viva Le Dissention]

You may be right.

[weegee]

At my high school school, there was a "Scantron" machine. The ability of that machine to read the tests (or "ballots" was fuzzy. The teachers knew this and would run the answer key through the machine. How ever many questions the machine said were wrong became the standard by which to offset all test scores.

Now imagine if the machine reading cards is miscounting the same way. No devious plan at work, just crappy technology that is unreliable. Personal inspection of every ballot can make it easier to tell what the intent was.

[JoeSixPack1]

They need to get the votes before the brainwashing starts to wear off.

Ding, Ding,, We have a winner!!!

[Viva Le Dissention]

Ya'll lost that when you went and tinkered with the constitution and out popped the 17th Amendment.

So which is worse--policy dictated by the mob--which, incidentally, is still subject to check by the judiciary (in theory, at least), or policy dictated by a authoritarian leader who does not subject himself to a meaningful election?

On second thought, Il Duce wasn't so bad?...

[wordsofearnest]

Some ought to glad their isn't a bounty on their hides.

[weegee]

Some of the feeble voters (elderly and retarded) are used as vote farms by the Democrats. There is some assistance that can be provided to voters. It is an unfair appropriation of these citizens' votes; they are exploited. Again, there is outrage from time to time but little is done to stop it.

Some states re-establish voting rights for felons after a period of time. I don't know that any state re-establishes second ammendment rights (right to bear arms) to any felon.

Which is a more serious violation of constitutional rights by the government?

The felony does not even have to be violent to lose gun rights. Ask G. Gordon Liddy. While Mr. Liddy cannot own firearms, Mrs. Liddy owns plenty of them (although she could probably be prosecuted for providing easy access to such prohibited items to Mr. Liddy).

[cmak9]

Why stop at kids? My dog lifted his leg on my tv once during a Clinton state-of-the-union, which makes him more astute than most MTV'ers.

LOL, very funny (and accurate).

[Woahhs]

Accusations and insinuation aren't explainations either. Living your life as you see fit is not the same thing as having input on what is and is not proscribed to your countrymen.

And how's that theoretical check by the judiciary workin' for ya these days?

How did you make the leap from qualified to authoritarian?

Are you going to try another one of your wheezing histrionics sessions instead of answering the question?

[Trailerpark Badass]

I can only guess there was some sort of grand and meritorious reason for it, such as the possibility that the governing powers could somehow force people into illiteracy, and effectively deny them the vote.

"Force people into illiteracy?" Quite an outlandish hypothetical, don't you think? The way things are going, the government is falling all over itself making sure the illiterate DO vote.

[weegee]

We will know that the illiterate have the vote when photos of the candidates start to appear on the ballots like in some other countries.

[freedumb2003]

have to put up with these people that can't intellectually go from point A to point B. In exchange, I get a rock-solid guarantee that I can walk into the booth and pull a lever.

Unless you are a minority in California. The 9th Circus Court has officially declared California minorities idiots who can't even punch a hole properly.

[weegee]

On second thought, Il Duce wasn't so bad?...

Certainly some Italians think that, they've shown some support for his granddaughter on the basis of family alone.

Then again, they've elected several porn actresses too.