To encourage your teen`s interest in political issues and candidates, talk about the upcoming election. Discuss election issues and how voters are making changes. You can also discuss the different candidates who are running. Encourage your teen to research what each candidate stands for. And talk about how your teen`s personal value systems influence decisions. The only known maximum voting age is that of the Holy See, where the right to vote for the election of a new pope is limited to cardinals under the age of 80. A report proposing to lower the voting age in the Australian Capital Territory in Canberra, Australia, to 16 years was tabled in the Legislative Assembly of the Territory on 26 September 2007 and rejected. [21] By the mid-20th century, many public servants had resigned themselves to each other. However, they were unable to gain the legislative momentum to pass a constitutional amendment. On March 2, 1971, Bayh`s Subcommittee and the House Judiciary Committee approved the proposed constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18 for all elections. [32] A request to lower the voting age to 16 was made during the consideration of amendments to the Venezuelan constitution in 2007.
Cilia Flores, President of the National Assembly, announced that the Joint Commission on Constitutional Reform had found the idea acceptable. [93] Once passed by the Legislative Assembly,[94] the amendment was part of the package of constitutional proposals and was defeated in the 2007 referendum. On 20 November 2013, Malta lowered the voting age for local elections from 18 to 16 compared to 2015. The proposal received broad support from the government and opposition, social scientists and youth organisations. Senator Harley Kilgore began campaigning for a lower voting age in the 77th Congress in 1941. [4] Despite the support of other senators, representatives, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Congress failed to pass a national amendment. However, public interest in lowering the voting age has become an issue at the local level. In 1943 and 1955, the legislatures of Georgia and Kentucky passed measures to lower the voting age to 18. [5] Oregon and Texas subsequently challenged the bill in court, and the case went to the Supreme Court in 1970 as Oregon v. Mitchell.
[14] At that time, four states had a minimum voting age below 21: Georgia, Kentucky, Alaska, and Hawaii. [15] [16] On 10. In March 1971, the Senate voted 94-0 to propose a constitutional amendment to ensure that the minimum voting age could not exceed 18. [33] [34] On March 23, 1971, the House of Representatives voted 401 to 19 in favor of the proposed amendment. [35] Although the voting age at the federal level is 18, one-third of states allow those who are 17 but will turn 18 in congressional elections to participate in primaries. Other States may also do so as an administrative practice. States may take this step to encourage youth voter turnout, or because primaries can be seen as part of the broader electoral process. In Massachusetts, two best friends have made progress in lowering the voting age. Aaron Nelson and Max Carr have donated articles in their hometowns. President Nixon contradicted Kennedy in a letter to the Speaker of the House and the leaders of the House minority and majority, saying it was not a question of whether the voting age should be lowered, but how. In his own interpretation of Katzenbach, Nixon argued that including age as something discriminatory would be too important and expressed concern that the damage caused by a Supreme Court decision to repeal the Voting Rights Act could be catastrophic.
[19] The United States is not alone in requiring citizens to be 18 years old to vote. Most countries in the world also have a voting age of 18. Austria, Brazil, Cuba and Nicaragua are among the countries where 16-year-olds are allowed to vote; And a handful of countries allow 17-year-olds to vote. In some countries, voting is still not allowed before the age of 20 or 21. Between 1942, when the public debate about lowering the voting age began in earnest, and the early 1970s, ideas about youth organizations increasingly challenged the model of care that had previously dominated the country`s approach to youth rights. [9] The traits traditionally associated with youth—idealism, lack of “self-interest,” and openness to new ideas—were seen as positive qualities for a political system that seemed to be in crisis. [9] The UK Ministry of Justice published a Green Paper entitled The Governance of Britain on 3 July 2007, in which it proposed the creation of a Youth Citizenship Commission. [53] The Commission would consider lowering the voting age. Presenting the document to the House of Commons, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “Although the voting age has been 18 since 1969, it is right to investigate in the context of this debate and hear from young people themselves whether lowering that age would increase turnout.” [54] In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the voting age was lowered to 18 in India, Switzerland, Austria, and Morocco. Japan lowered the voting age from 20 to 18 in June 2016. [6] Beginning in 2007, a dispute continued in the Maldives. [7] [8] One-third of U.S.
states allow 17-year-olds to participate in primaries if they turn 18 on or before Election Day. In 2020, states where 17-year-olds can participate in primary schools include Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. The District of Columbia also allows 17-year-olds to vote. Some states even allow 17-year-olds to vote in caucuses. Review your state`s official voting guidelines to determine what they do and don`t allow. The voting age for local elections was lowered to 16 in some states shortly after 2000. [9] Three federal states had made the reduction in 2003 (Burgenland, Carinthia and Styria)[9], and in May 2003 Vienna became the fourth. [26] Salzburg followed suit,[27][28] and thus the total number reached at least five of the nine federal states at the beginning of 2005. [29] As a result of provincial law, the lowering of the municipal voting age in the provinces of Burgenland, Salzburg and Vienna also resulted in a lowering of the voting age in these states. [28] Although the Twenty-sixth Amendment passed more quickly than any other constitutional amendment, about 17 states refused to adopt measures to lower their minimum voting ages after Nixon signed the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1970. [4] Opponents of extending the right to vote to young people have questioned the maturity and responsibility of people over 18.
Rep. Emanuel Celler, one of the most vocal opponents of a lower voting age from the 1940s to the 1970s (and chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee for much of that period), insisted that young people lacked the “good judgment” essential to good citizenship and the qualities that made young soldiers good soldiers. did not make them good voters. [9] Professor William G. Carleton wonders why choice for young people was proposed at a time when adolescence had increased so much, rather than in the past when people had more responsibilities in previous years. [23] Carleton also criticized the decision to lower the voting age, citing Americans` concern for young people in general, over-reliance on higher education, and equating technological know-how with responsibility and intelligence. [24] He also condemned the military service argument, calling it “cliché.” [25] Given the age of soldiers during the civil war, he asserted that literacy and education were not the reasons to restrict the right to vote; On the contrary, common sense and the ability to understand the political system justified restrictions on the voting age. [26] Today, many miners` rights activists advocate lowering the voting age to 17 or even 16. They argue that this will give teens the chance to get involved in politics early on and create lifelong voters. The 26th Amendment (passed and ratified in 1971)[80] prevents states from setting an voting age above 18. [81] In addition to the express restrictions provided for in Amendments XIV, XV, XIX, and XXVI, elective qualifications for elections to the House of Representatives and the Senate are largely delegated to the states under Article I, Section 2 and Amendment XVII of the United States Constitution, each of which states: “The House of Representatives shall consist of the members of: elected every two years by the people of each state.
and the electors of each state must have the necessary qualifications for the electors of the largest branch of the state legislature. ” and “The United States Senate shall consist of two senators from each state, elected by the people of that state, for a six-year term; and each senator has one vote. The electors of each state must have the necessary qualifications to respond to the electors of the largest branch of the state legislatures. [82] The first proposal to lower the voting age to 16 was tabled in Parliament in 2007. A bill to lower the voting age in local elections reached last reading in 2018, but was rejected by opponents until the end of the parliamentary session. [37] The voting age is a widely debated issue in the United States. Supporters say teens as young as 16 will be allowed to vote in government elections, arguing that it would increase voter turnout, encourage civic engagement and give teens a say in their future. An amendment to a law extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (H.R. 4249) extended the right to vote in national, state, and local elections to citizens 18 years of age and older.
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