promoting voting

The opinion pages of major newspapers are a graveyard of seemingly innovative but sometimes half-baked policy proposals, very few of which actually gain traction and become reality. So I didn't think much when I read Anya Kamenetz's piece arguing persuasively that the voting age in the United States should be lowered from 18 to 16:

The more we treat teenagers as adults, the more they rise to our
expectations. From a developmental and vocational point of view, the
late teens are the right starting point for young people to think
seriously about their futures. Government can help this process by
bestowing rights along with responsibilities.

Then this morning there were 7 letters to the editor printed in response to the article, most of which seemed to be in favor of Kamenetz's proposal. (There were also 270 comments posted to the New York Times website responding to the article.)

Apparently the article struck a chord with the readership. So who knows? Maybe we will see the voting age lowered soon enough. But it's probably unlikely without one thing: the input of youth themselves.

What do you think? Is it unfair to have an age requirement of 18 years old in order to vote? Why stop at age 16, why not younger? Would this result in greater turnout among young people? Are there other factors in our political system that need to be addressed first, before we look at changing voting age requirements?  read more »

My friend and I are trying to start a Young Democrats club at our school. Has anyone else tried this? Any tips or advice? Deval Patrick is my neighbor as is Brian Joyce (a senator) so we're going to try to bring them to our school, but does anyone have advice on events we could attend as a group?