I was almost arrested for voting fraud in my wayward youth when I tried to vote for Clinton at age 15.


by Ted Grant

I honestly cannot tell if this is meant to be serious or not…

Yes it’s true that most eleven year-olds probably aren’t knowledgeable enough to make a well-informed choice about political candidates, but the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that most fifty year-olds aren’t very well-informed either. And yet, everyone gets to vote (and, of course, many people choose not to). Everyone, that is, except for that would-be eleven year-old voter.

An eleven year old cannot drive, drink, join the army, give blood, enter into a contract, have sex (in most states), get married (in most states) or work a forty hour a week job. But you want to let them vote?

I agree. I was almost arrested for voting fraud in my wayward youth when I tried to vote for Clinton at age 15. My own mother turned me in when she went to vote and saw my name on the list of eligible voters.

Yeah. Sure you did.

I can’t believe some of the stuff I’m reading. It’s a democratic right to vote, and lame arguments about how it won’t lead to the policies you want, or the average kid may be open to outside influences, do not override that. Everyone’s open to outside influences, and lots of voters are dumb and irrational. It’s simply much worse to NOT let some people vote (and their desires will be ignored) than it is to let some irrational people vote.

I think we should give computers the vote. But only Macs.

Oh, Lord, spare me the egos of Mac users…

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12 Comments

  1. But Ted, Macs are inherently superior because they are made by a multinational corporation with a fuzzier image than its rival has!

    #1 Charlie Bebattica

  2. see also: Nintendo.

    #2 Nate P.

  3. Fourteen or Fight!

    (Identify the movie reference.)

    #3 Ed ("Jack Norris")

  4. Eleven-year-olds should get the vote, if only so that PREZ can become a reality.

    #4 HydrogenGuy

  5. It does happen. One of the kids I played with growing up voted in the elections of ‘96 at the age of 14.

    #5 Dan Guy

  6. @ Nate–Wild In the Streets.

    #6 Laurel

  7. Oops–I meant @ Ed. Sorry.

    #7 Laurel

  8. Yes! (The song of that name from said film popped into my head when I read this.)

    #8 Ed ("Jack Norris")

  9. “Wild in the Streets” btw, for anyone who doesn’t know is a whacked out sixties film about a rock star who leads a youth revolution in which, after a successful campaign to have the voting age lowered to fourteen, becomes president and throws all old people into concentration camps where they’re force fed LSD. Great fun.
    Link to the “Fourteen or Fight” sequence:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVMvHjAEBD4

    #9 Ed ("Jack Norris")

  10. Did they get the age lowered to 14? It’s been a long time since I saw the flick, but I think I remember some kind of lame-o “Fifteen and Ready” compromise? (-:

    #10 Laurel

  11. Then “The Shape of Things to Come” by Max Frost & The Troopers ended up being used in Target commercials.

    #11 Charlie Bebattica

  12. Laurel: It’s quite possible; I don’t remember anything about a “fifteen compromise” but it’s also been many years since I saw it myself. The only thing that really stuck in my mind was the “Fourteen or Fight” sequence and Hal Holbrook freaking out on the Senate floor. The stuff about old people’s concentration camps I had to get from a summary I looked up online.

    #12 Ed ("Jack Norris")

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