June 21, 2006

Voting ages

Posted in election law, politics at 9:42 am by thelawthoughts

There is some discussion going on in NSW about lowering the voting age to 16.

I see this kind of inquiry as the a constantly recurring one that, really, doesn't make much difference to anything. Forgive me, but we can have discussions about maturity and capacity to make decisions until the cows come home. We could make the voting age 12 and there would be little difference. We are all vulnerable to political incentives, whether 12 or 50.

The voting age is one of those laws that just isn't worth the time and effort changing.

Does this mean we trust little kids to make sensible electoral decisions about who is best equipped to run a country, potentially who is best able to prevent terrorist attacks, or who will best protect their parents' prosperity, but we won't let them have a beer in the pub?

That's what it sounds like to me.