Voting age

thank you all for answering my question, and I agree maybe 15 is a little to young but 16 is just perfect!

what pwincess_irenemarie said is very true, and I agree!!

I am 16 and I don’t think we should have voting rights. In Australia it is compulsory to vote, and if you do not vote you are fined $200. I can not see half of the 16 and 17 year old population voting for our Prime Minister. They don’t respect parliament enough and don’t even follow politics. We are not even old enough to be our own guardian. We are considered adults at 18 so I don’t think children who are still dependent on their parents at age 16 are mentally mature enough to decide who runs their country, regardless of how long the leader is in office for. When our time comes, we may choose who runs the country, when we are mature enough to have a political opinion. I’m not saying all 16 year olds are stupid and unaware, I would love to vote but I know a lot of people who couldn’t care less and they are not the people I want choosing my country’s Prime Minister.

In my opinion, the voting age should be lowered to 16 because you are a little more bit more mature than at age 15. At 16, you start to understand politics a whole lot better. You, also, start to care what happens in politics because you start to realize how you are affected.

Which 15 year old understands all politics and really cares?

why do you have OBAMA as your pic I mean seriusly and yes they should lower the age we are resposible enough we know the political views.

I think it should be 16 or 17. Because its also affecting us. Because hes in there for four years by that times we’ll be 20 So thats when were starting to make a living. So his choices are affecting us.

I disagree. I’m sixteen, and although I did pay attention to the campaign, most people in my grade didn’t, and I definitely didn’t know enough to confidently vote. Do you really want teenagers walking into a poll and picking a candidate through eenie meenie miney moh? Now sure, you could say that only those who pay attention should vote, but that wouldn’t really work. I think that at 16 some people are still going through that ‘rebellious’ stage. Also, as a 16 year old, I don’t feel that I truly have enough time to watch all of the political debates and whatnot- I think that 18 is a good age because its when you start being able to make your own decisions, and you are no longer required to attend high school. I don’t, nor will I pretend to, have a clear enough understanding to make a good decision voting at this point in time, and I paid 10x more attention to this years campaign than half of the people in my grade at my school. I really don’t think that anything should change.

how many 15 year olds live on their own pay taxes set a budget and have payments that need to be made? my guess is hardly any so one reason why is because most 15 year olds still live with mom and dad therefore have little to no experience with what its like setting a budget and paying for the place you live the food you eat and the car that takes you places if it were up to me I would recommend voting be restricted to people who have served their country in the military but that too is stretching it far