15 Reasons Children Should Be Allowed to Vote

Voting is incredibly important: a well-run representative democracy gives everyone a voice and a chance to be part of the politics process. Whether anywhere actually has a well-run one is another matter — there’s some pretty nefarious shit going on when it comes to stopping people being able to vote, and fairly limited choice of who to vote for.

But it’s essential to at least try. And, maybe, just maybe, the best way of trying to make things work best is to allow children to vote.

It might sound dumb, but for a long time only the wealthiest, whitest and male-est people could vote. It wasn’t until 1965 that the Voting Rights Act granted the vote to all sections of adult society, and the 26th Amendment came in in 1971 to lower the voting age to 18. So you can join the U.S. Army at 17, but not vote for another year. You’re considered enough of an adult to drive a car, but not to put an X in the right box — that sucks, surely.

It’s possible that one day, denying children the vote will seem as nuts and backwards as denying it to women and people of color. Or, maybe, everything will go hideously wrong and we’ll all be like, “Yeah, we shouldn’t have put five-year-olds in charge.”

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