I think most would agree with me that the election for the President of the United States is an important event. The President holds a lot of power that could be very useful or very dangerous depending on who holds it. As most of my readers probably know, I did not vote -- not because I didn't deem it important, or because I thought my vote would not count. I did not vote because I can't. I am sixteen years old, so I am not allowed to vote for anything.
The question that I have is, simply, "Why?" Why shouldn't a 16 year old be allowed to vote? Why do we have an age limit at all? I am in college, but it is assumed that since I am young, I am also ignorant. You don't think I'm stupid because you seem to believe that in two years I will know enough to vote, but I would like to point out that there are adults that don't even know what they are voting for. I heard some statistics the other day from a survey of teens at a concert with questions like "How many senators are there?" and "Who is the Speaker of the House?" Not all that surprisingly, most teens failed miserably. However, another study was done of adults (around the age of 40 if I remember correctly) and they did only marginally better. So why does our culture assume that adults automatically know more? Along with those statistics was an article, and the main purpose was to say that if you are ignorant of the issues, you shouldn't vote.
Well, criticizing the system is useless if no solution is offered.
So if you can't decide who can vote based on age, gender, or race, how do you decide who can vote? My answer is in the form of another question. Would it be too ridiculous to require a test on the issues and the candidates positions? Sure, it might be inconvenient, and politicians have that ability to dodge the issues sometimes, but it would get people involved. If you don't know what you're voting on, you can't vote. Period. People would be required to know the candidates, so candidates would be required to make themselves known. Then, as far as inconvenience goes, would you rather have to take an hour or less out of 4 years (35,064 hours), or have a president that you completely disagree with because a bunch of ignorant people voted just because they always vote Democrat, or always vote Republican?
I am not ignorant. I may not know everything, but if I had the opportunity to make my voice heard by simply learning a few more things, I would. So if someone who is capable of voting is refused a vote, does that make the election rigged? I think as a citizen of the United States of America, I should have a voice. Is that too much to ask?
