No Vote
Dammit! I guess this is growing up.

Last November’s Teachers’ Strike was a time when student interest in politics were at a high. Most places you went, you could hear conversations like, “Yo guy, Bill 160 is da bomb.” / “Naw playa. Totalitarian control over education is whack!” All kidding aside, through active debate and mobilizing themselves, youth showed that they were willing and able to participate in the political process. Unfortunately, most of these students’ views went unheard. In fact, as the conflict between teachers and the government continued, students seemed to be consistently ignored, patronized, or scolded. How would the government and school board officials have treated us differently if we had the power to vote them out of office?

A few months later, I found myself interviewing Keith Mandell, founder of an organization called Operation Register (a group plans a series of ‘symbolic protests’ to push for youth voting rights). “I wanted to make young people aware of the growing movement to lower the voting age,” says Keith. “Most young people support a lower voting age, but they are unaware such a movement exist.” Well, if you don’t know, now you know.

Why?

Ok let’s face it. Two things have power in our society. Money and votes. Corporations have already taken notice of youth money-power (i.e. the Playdium and Coliseum weren’t built for yo’ mamma); and maybe it’s time that governments gave us the power to vote as well. After all, when a group of citizens is unable to vote, the government can virtually ignore them without fear of losing political power. In the past, students have tried to assert their political will in other ways (like walkouts, protests, etc), but why not go straight to the source and demand the right to vote?

How low can you go?

A common question about youth suffrage is “How low do they want the voting age lowered?”. This is usually followed by some quip about a baby not being able to reach the voting table. Alright, smart alec. Many youth movements support the lowering of the voting age to 16, while others would prefer that voting rights not be based on age at all. It all depends on who you talk to.

Teenagers are whiny, apathetic, and generally uninformed.

Many arguments against youth suffrage are based on statements like these. Mandell counters by saying, “Young people are fully capable of voting intelligently. Most students take classes on history and government. They debate issues inside and outside of class. Because they have recently studied and learned about these issues, they have more knowledge about the way government works and key issues than many adults.” We certainly saw that this was true during the teachers’ strike, but maybe youth would lose interest if the poltics didn’t directly affect them.

There is a famous statistic that 75% of American adults can’t name their state senators, and I doubt it is much better here in Canada. If voter turnout is a measure of adults’ interest in the politics, their apathy is staggering. Only about 67% of eligible voters turned out for the last federal election; that means over 6.4 million so-called ‘worthy’ voters didn’t even bother to show up. Studies have also shown that adults are prone to vote as their parents and peers do, sometimes with frightening consistency. A study in the UK showed that 90% of adult voters supported the same party as their parents.

In short, if youth is being excluded from voting because they are uninformed, apathetic and mass-minded, than most adults should be excluded as well.

Separating the men from the boys

The truth is, there is no reason to exclude youth from voting that couldn’t be chalked up to a crass generalization. The catch is, of course, that the line has to be put somewhere. I personally know many people under 18 who are very politically active and should be allowed to vote. I also watch MuchMusic and know what can happen if you give kids exactly what they want (you know where it’s at - hah heh heh heh). In the end, the youth suffrage movement will only succeed if kids really want their voices heard, and are unwilling to wait till they’re 18 to get the right to vote. We can take it or leave it.