should kids get to vote?

Sept. 17 -- Americans may be getting used to the Terminator on the ballot. But can they handle his teenage fans in the voting booth?

Laura Finstad says yes. She works, pays taxes, and has been a political activist for years. And she's finally won the right to vote in the United States.

Finstad fumes about the law that made her wait so long and is campaigning for the voting rights of younger teenagers. The teen is gathering signatures for a petition to lower the voting age in suburban Takoma Park, Md.

"Young people have jobs, pay taxes, go to school to learn about government, and know about the issues," Finstad said. "We think 16 would be a fair age to be able to vote."

Supporters of lowering the voting age from 18, the national legal standard since the 26th Amendment was ratified 32 years ago, think the time for their issue has come. There's movement in several states and municipalities to give younger teens the right to vote.

In Baltimore, Md., 16- and 17-year olds voted in the mayoral primary on Sept. 9. An electoral quirk separated the primary from the general election by 14 months, and anyone who will be 18 during the general election was eligible to vote. Now, a prominent lawmaker wants to permanently extend the privilege to these younger teens.

The Cambridge, Mass., city council recently approved lowering the voting age to 17, and now the state legislature must approve the petition.

A Maine legislative panel in April approved, then reconsidered, extending voting rights to 17-year-olds. Similar legislation is being considered in Texas and California, and has been debated in Minnesota.

Youth voting rights advocates are also campaigning to lower the voting age in Florida, Hawaii, North Dakota, Anchorage, Alaska, and New York City.

The debate has caught momentum in Europe, as well, with Great Britain considering a proposal to lower the voting age from 18 to 16.

Globally, though, the most radical proposal to enfranchise youth belongs to Germany, where parliament will consider this fall giving children the vote from infancy, giving new meaning to the social policy "from cradle to grave."

Under the proposal, which would immediately increase the number of potential voters by 13.8 million, parents would vote on behalf of their children until they are 12, when the children could decide whether to allow their parents to vote for them.

A key rallying point for the German proposal is balancing out the political clout of the elderly, a growing demographic there, and boosting the political prowess of families. But U.S. advocates for youth voting rights say they're less interested in countering the power of the elderly than empowering people of all ages.

"The right to vote is essential, no matter who you are," said Alex Koroknay-Palicz, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Youth Rights Association.

Germany's proposal might be extreme, but supporters of youth voting rights here say it's a step in the right direction.

"As people begin to respect young people as individuals, parents will give children the right to cast their own ballot," Koroknay-Palicz said. "If it happens in Germany, it will change the law for the better. Then it will be a matter of changing the mindset and changing the culture."

Typically, youth voting rights supporters in the United States advocate lowering the voting age by a couple of years. They argue that teens often work, and should not be subject to taxation without representation, an American battle cry dating back to Boston Tea Party days.

Also, if teens went to the voting booth at younger ages, they would grow accustomed to casting ballots and more likely become habitual adult voters, advocates argue. Teens' political involvement would also boost the civic interest, and perhaps voter turnout, of their parents, say supporters of youth voting rights.

Critics of a younger voting age, however, say teens are not ready for democracy, and their participation as voters would not improve the electoral process.

"You're dealing with people who don't have any knowledge of or any stake in our democracy," said Curtis Gans, executive director of the Washington-based Committee for the Study of the American Electorate. "If they're lucky, they will have had one civics course before 16, and many won't have that. They're not parents, not homeowners, not raising children, and they're not in any responsible jobs."

Gans argues that younger voters are actually less likely than older citizens to make it to the ballot box on Election Day, so extending the vote to teens younger than 18 would damage already poor voter turnout.

In Baltimore's mayoral primary last Tuesday, teens did not seem to be much of a factor in voter turnout. Approximately 2,400 16- and 17-year-olds registered to vote. Voter turnout was about 35 percent, matching the turnout for the most recent primary four years ago, the city elections office said.

Still, with 40 million young people between the ages of 12 and 19, teenagers should not be underestimated as a political force, says Sara Jane Boyers, author of 'Teen Power Politics.'

"They're thinking people. They're working, contributing and buying — they're a huge economic force," Boyers said.

Even when young people can't wield voting power, Boyers said, they can influence their parents' votes or use other political tools such as protests. "They want people to pay attention to them," she said.

With young, college-aged voters expected to be a swing vote in the 2004 presidential election, lowering the voting age could get more attention in the coming months. "I think it's going to continue to pick up steam," Koroknay-Palicz said.

"As people realize that young people have power in politics, they're going to key into their interests and desires. Lowering the voting age will come up as part of that."

This french clown wannabe keeps hammering on the word "subjective" because if he lets go, there are not two ideas left to rub together

This guy is one of those car wrecks you just can't help but rubber-neck. In the past, he has demonstrated complete obliviousness to anything that doesn't support his view. He's fascinating in that he really seems like a true, bright, conservative that suffers from the liberal's burden of not being able to distinguish what he likes from what is good, right, and proper.

Besides, some people just deserve a little fertilizer smeared on 'em.

I think we ought to raise the voting age to 21 - It seems to me that the majority of college-aged students tend to vote for whatever the professor tells them.

So, who's running for Mayor? Britney Spears or Eminem?

You've said quite a bit with only a few words. You accurately depict the mindset of the teenager, and thus the reason that they shouldn't vote. They simply aren't mature enough to make coherent decisions of such importance (though the same can probably be said about most democrats).

I think that if you cannot successfully punch a hole in a sheet of paper, you should not be allowed to vote.

Something in the back of my mind keeps telling me that there weren't any real problems punching a hole in a single piece of paper - the problem was when someone(s) tried to punch a hole through several sheets of paper at the same time. :)

If they tried this here, the U.S. would be a nation run by Mormons, Catholics, and welfare queens!

It already is - well, 2 out of 3 anyway.

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.

Ironically, some of our public schools could potentially be driving people into illiteracy.

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?

Well, policy dictated by the constitution would be nice, though it seems to be a losing proposition these days.

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