Should children be allowed to vote?

Question

I overheard someone say this and my reasoning by why they shouldn't was this:
Children pretty much believe anything and look up to the parents. Also the parents have a lot of influence in the childrens life. The fact of the matter is that the children would not be voting, it would be the parents. They will tell the kids who to vote for, the kids are not old enough to know what the arguments are and are not old enough to decide who they want in office. So it's like the parents voted twice or six times depending on how many kids they have.
What do you think?

Answer 1

Well whether they are 7 or 18 most of the time they vote like their parents anyways.

Answer 2

It wouldn't be the parents voting or the Kids. It would be the public schools, teachers unions, special interest groups, etc. Parents quickly lose influence over their children once they enter the public school system and the "secular" humanist agenda of the public school system takes over.

This is not true of all students of course. There will be dissenters, but the humanists will have the majority. All you have to do is listen to "discussions and debates" in high school and college classrooms to see that this is true. Every debate or discussion produces the same answers using similar or identical vocabulary. Those discussions and debates are pointless exercises intended to serve as "proof" that the educational system is still open to diversity of thought. In reality introducing politically incorrect ideas results in scorn and ostracism from both professors/teachers and classmates.

Answer 3

I've heard that a persons reasoning skills are not fully developed until about age 25. Why not set the age limit there?

Of course, the younger a person is, the less likely they are to vote. This would indicate that children would almost never vote just because of lack of interest.

Answer 4

You know...a LOT of adults are like that, too!
Scary to think that there are many people who won't look at the issues and will choose a candidate based on his/her looks or how well they speak in public (but never listening to what they say or questioning their words).

However, I'm not sure what is worse:
> ignorant voters
> people who have the right to vote but don't.
Hey - that might be a good question for "Yahoo! Answers"!!!

Answer 5

no, children should not be allowed to vote, AND the voting age should be raised. Americans mature so late that I would venture to say that half of the people who are at voting age are still basically children in their thinking. The good thing is most of those tend to not vote.

Answer 6

I think answered your question yourself. It honestly wouldn't suprise me if one of our current political parties was actually considering this though. If children were allowed to vote, using the exact same reasoning you did, some people would begin pumping out kids for the sole purpose of ballot box stuffing. Most kids are not mature, responsible, intelligent or informed enough to be permitted to vote.

Answer 7

When you look at the bums going to congress it seems children are already voting. Many voters may be of legal age but they have the mentality of a 12 year old.

Answer 8

It's takes a mature & responsible person to understand the voting process & who to vote for in our government. Children have not reached the age of maturity as well as some adults, lol.

Answer 9

Why not? Politicians are always starting up projects whose cost burdens are pushed onto future generations. So technically, these youngsters should have a say. Afterall, they and their kiddies will end up with much of the debt.

Answer 10

many, many people just vote for whom their leaders tell them to vote for but that is beside the point. i don't think their limited life experience would allow them to make an informed decision. then of course there is the whole "taxation without representation" issue that i suppose could be argued...