How can our society justify the voice of an 18 year old being more important than the voice of a 16 year old? At the age of 16, most teenagers can work, pay taxes, drive, be charged as adults for crimes, and even be sentenced to death. In most states, 16-year-olds can get a driver’s license, though usually with restrictions. How can we charge a 16-year-old murderer as a “mature, responsible adult” but describe a 16-year-old student looking to vote as an uninformed kid?

For those people who say kids should wait until they are 18 to vote, I disagree. Nothing special happens at age 18; there is no sudden increase in cognitive ability, political wisdom or political knowledge. Furthermore, 18 is one of the worst times to start voting. This is the time when teenagers’ lives are in turmoil because they are moving away to college, stressing out over graduation, getting a job, and joining the armed forces. However, by 16, most people have about as stable an ideology and capacity to reason through politics as they are going to get. Any improvements after that come slowly, if at all.

If you wanted to exclude 16 and 17-year-olds on the grounds that they are more likely to be ignorant or misinformed, you would also in effect be arguing against other demographics having a say. If you fear teenagers are too dumb to vote, we shouldn’t deny all of them, including those who are 18 and 19. Instead, we should allow any child who can pass the U.S. citizenship exam to acquire the right to vote.

I believe voting is a habit that has to start early. If people don’t start out as voters, they’re less likely to ever vote. Getting teenagers in the habit of voting will make them lifetime voters.

The extension of voting rights to teenagers is a complicated idea. However, the ability to participate in a free election is a fundamental human right, so not only are we marginalizing young people if we deny them the vote, but we are stripping them of something they have a basic right to do. The needs of the young are overlooked, and the young have valuable perspectives that are missing from the national conversation.  Expanding the voting age would help fix this issue.