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Should the voting age in the United States be raised, lowered, or kept stagnant?

I'm of the opinion that it should be lowered to 16, simply because a) voter turnout is low and b) it will increase knowledge and interest in the governmental processes.

"A toothache, or a violent passion, is not necessarily diminished by our knowledge of its causes, its character, its importance or insignificance".- T.S. Eliot

it won't necessarily increase knowledge and/or interest. age doesn't generate an interest in politics or anything. i kind of think of it as an acquired interest. it sounds bad but i honestly don't care at all about the governmental processes or anything. and i know there's others who feel that way and they might go vote just because they can. so then it the age was lowered, there's a chance we could have even more youngsters going around voting just because and not paying attention to the real issues. however there are some 16 year olds who should be allowed to vote.. and some 18+ who shouldn't be allowed. i think that for anyone to be able to vote there should me some sort of knowledge basis test, not specifics, but just general knowledge of the election of the issues/topics from all the candidates. although that would be much more of a hassle, but i definitely don't think the age should be lowered just for the sake of low voter turn out, that's just asking for trouble.

I believe that what my teacher said in seventh grade was good. he said "I believe that the voting age should be the same as the drinking and smoking age and that kids are allowed to do that when they get a diploma because or turn 21". he said it so the dropouts would not be able to vote, smoke and drink until they are 21 .

People smoke and drink even if they're not 21...

I think 16 is a bit too young, most 16 year olds don't give two shits about it, and if they did vote it would be for the hell of it and that would change results.

That's a very discriminatory thought. America is a government BY the people, and you cannot discriminate legal adults from that right because they dropped out of school.

Not everything without an education is stupid, and in fact most people with educations lack a lot of mental fortitude.

In the United States, when you turn 18 you gain FULL constitutional rights. You are legally an adult, among those are the right to vote. Amending the constitution to prevent dropouts from voting is discriminatory and ridiculous .

And not everyone fits the school system.

I would keep it static. To be honest, I doubt that the voting turn out would be a whole lot better after lowering the age. The amount of people under 20 or so interested in government and informed enough about politics to cast a well thought out vote is probably lower than many people would think. However, we shouldn't raise the age because an adult should be able to have the freedom to vote as that is the right of any citizen that is an adult. Raising it would not be wise either. There are more effective ways (such as revising the educational system) to increase knowledge about government. It's fine at the age it is now, in my opinion.

Oh yeah. This is my exact opinion on the matter as well.

I know this is a far stretch for qualifications in voting, but it would be worth it. There are too many people in this country that vote for illogical reasons.

"I'm atheist, I'll vote for the guy that doesn't believe in god."
"I'm homosexual, I'll vote for the guy that's gay."
"I'm 18, a high school dropout, and had a GPA of 1.6 until I dropped out. I don't know who our first president was, but I'll vote just because I can, and that guy sounds cool."

It would be much better for our voting system if there was a short test with questions about the basics to politics, similar to questions you would see on a 6th grade social studies test.

An age limit doesn't really do too much justice to the voting system. There are 14 year old children that know more about what is currently going on in politics than adults.

To move on is to grow, yet we can barely accomplish either on our own. We know the way to go, yet we follow those with their eyes closed.

I think it's pretty ignorant to automatically define that some one doesn't know anything because of their age.. It's the individual, not the whole group of people. You have the people who are interested in this kind of things in any age group and you have the ones who couldn't give a fuck about it and don't even know two whole thirds about it.

I think it should legal at any age. everyone has the right to state their thoughts on things. Isn't America a freedom-of-speech country? Yeah, that's what I thought. Just because your 18 or 16 years old doesn't make you any smarter than the next about politics. Being young doesn't make you stupid. and being older doesn't make you smarter either. So personally, I think it should be at any age. I just think the government in general is unfair in ways.

Any age? Really?
What if an 8 year old, who knows absolutely nothing about politics whatsoever, wants to vote. Let him?

"Oh I seen this guy on a cereal commercial? I'll vote for him! Oh wait! What's a president?"

You want that determining the state of our country?

America has freedom of speech, correct, but it has limits.

To move on is to grow, yet we can barely accomplish either on our own. We know the way to go, yet we follow those with their eyes closed.