Op Ed: Voting Age

At the age of sixteen American teenagers are permitted to independently drive a car, a responsibility that puts them in control of their lives as well as the others around them. However, despite being responsible for their own safety and the safety of those on the roads with them they are not permitted to vote in local, state, or national elections. Giving them one responsibility while withholding the other fails to make sense to me.
At the age of sixteen was taking a course in which I would receive college credit in American history, along with a class of extremely capable and mature peers. We were completing the intellectual work of people who were old enough to vote, and therefore maintained their ability to think and process information. Why then, were we unable to make the same choices in our government as the students who were completing the same work we were?
When the country was established the framers of the constitution were concerned with controlling the influence of the uneducated masses, and therefore provided ways to get around their power. Today, the government prevents the mass population of maturing adolescents to voice their own opinion through voting. If the elite are concerned that the population of the United States will unite and empower candidates who are unqualified and immature, they need to reconsider the possibility of that ever happening. Not only is there the adult population to support honorable and qualified candidates (which really, do they always do that anyways?), but there is a system of checks and balances in the government that prevent any one branch from taking complete control. Sixteen year olds interested in voting are aware of this and many other aspects of the government that adults who are allowed to vote remain ignorant of.
With voter turnout in the United States already so low, there is little harm in broadening the group of citizens permitted to vote. By letting sixteen year olds vote you won’t see teenagers hanging out at the polls to complete joke ballots—not when it require spending hours in line. Rather, lowering the necessary age will allow for educated citizens who show an interest and passion for their country an opportunity to be heard.