Minimum age to vote

[GQ_jumper 4]

Can we raise it by a few years?? Pretty please??

I saw a commercial for a show about the youngest generation of voters in this election, it showed interviews with a group of 18 and 19 year olds getting ready to vote for the first time. And it proved one thing, 18 and 19 year olds are in no way educated enough to vote. They were stating who they were going to vote for and why, and honestly, they sounded like they decided who they should vote for by reading bumper stickers with campaign slogans.

So I am going to start a petition to revoke 18 and 19 year olds voting rights and replace it with a law allowing us to bitch slap them any time they debate politics and quote a crappy campaign slogan. I'm also attaching another bill onto that one that makes parking spots specifically for the obese, they'll get the ones at the far end of the parking lot, plus we can bitch slap em anytime we catch em with a twinkie!

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

[shropshire 0]

It's not age it's IQ that is the problem.... Anyone who thinks that the likes of Tony Blair was a jolly nice chap, should never be allowed to vote ..... ever!

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[Squeak 17]

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They were stating who they were going to vote for and why, and honestly, they sounded like they decided who they should vote for by reading bumper stickers with campaign slogans.
!

that would still be a better educated choice that a lot of older voters

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[quade 4]

Only if we can get a cutoff for the senile jackasses that can't figure out how to punch a butterfly ballot or do it without a hanging chad.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Nightingale 0]

I'm all for raising it a few years. However, we'd also need to raise the age for the draft. It's not right to tell someone he's old enough to go to war, but not old enough to vote out the people willing to send him there.

[MajorDad 0]

Painting them with a pretty wide brush.

There are plenty of 18 & 19 year olds who know what is going on and are mature for their age.

There are plenty of 20 year olds and older who are clueless and have know idea what is happening outside of their bubble.

Since there is no way to bring in "competancy" into the voting equation, the simple solution is the age requirement.

As someone pointed out, since they can die for thier country at 18, shouldnt they have the right to vote for the government who is going to put them in harms way?

Blue ones.

Major Dad
CSPA D-579

[labrys 0]

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As someone pointed out, since they can die for thier country at 18, shouldnt they have the right to vote for the government who is going to put them in harms way?

Or maybe we should only let veterans vote regardless of age.

Owned by Remi #?

[idrankwhat 0]

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So I am going to start a petition to revoke 18 and 19 year olds voting rights and replace it with a law allowing us to bitch slap them any time they debate politics and quote a crappy campaign slogan.

Don't bitch slap the young voters. Bitch slap the media when THEY do it! Why do you think voters, both young AND old, are ignorant in the first place?

[VTmotoMike08 0]

I consider myself fairly aware of whats going on in the world, but I also think that I am incredibly attractive and highly intelligent, so maybe I am a bit biased

I would be all for bringing competancy into the voting equation. Ever seen those on the street polls where the ask a random (hmm) person a few simple questions and they often get it wrong? How about something like adding a simple current event questions into the equation and if they miss it, then we don't count thier vote Things like:
1) Who is the current vice president of the US?
2) What year did the 9/11 attacks occur in?
3) Which party currently holds the majority of the seats in congress?


I'm not asking anyone to write a dissertation on the effects of rising commodity prices on inflation or anything, just a few simple questions to make sure that their head not totally in the sand. I bet we could sort out a few of the moronic votes just with questions 2 and 3!

[MajorDad 0]

Bringing "Competancy" into the equation is a dangerous,slippery slope.

Think how a governing party can use "competancy" to disinfranchise groups of people who are not likely to vote for them.

Huge can of worms better left unopened....

Blue ones

Major Dad
CSPA D-579

[ErricoMalatesta 0]

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Can we raise it by a few years?? Pretty please??

I saw a commercial for a show about the youngest generation of voters in this election, it showed interviews with a group of 18 and 19 year olds getting ready to vote for the first time. And it proved one thing, 18 and 19 year olds are in no way educated enough to vote. They were stating who they were going to vote for and why, and honestly, they sounded like they decided who they should vote for by reading bumper stickers with campaign slogans.

As opposed to a grown man who thinks his system of government is in any way democratic, and by extension, that voting matters?

[nathaniel 0]

While we're at it, let's revoke the right to vote from people who don't own land and have negative net worth.

You don't really have a stake to begin with if you don't own a piece of it amirite?

My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

[kelpdiver 2]

We had literacy and poll taxes before. The purpose was to keep blacks from voting. Any notion of returning to such ways will be DOA.

Are 18 yo's dumber than the average voter? Sure, but of the few that actually make it to the polls, they're far more interested as first time voters than those who have gone through the motions a dozen times.

Does the UK mandate voting, or is it fully voluntary, and therefore hardly used by the teenagers?

[Andrewwhyte 1]

The trouble all began when we dropped it from age 35.

[kallend 2,027]

What about disenfranchising couch potatoes who spend their days watching Oprah, sitcoms, soaps, NBA, NHL, PGA and NASCAR on TV - clearly they're stupid. Anyone with a BMI over 26 obviously has poor judgment. Lawyers, politicians and govt. employees shouldn't vote, there's a clear conflict of interest. Fundamentalists of any religion; stupidity again, no votes for them. Californians and Texans? Certainly NOT! ANyone that ever believed a TV commercial; too gullible, no votes for them...

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[VTmotoMike08 0]

You gotta watch out for those professors too, my buddy in Texas told me once that they got all the common sense educated out of them

[GQ_jumper 4]

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I'm all for raising it a few years. However, we'd also need to raise the age for the draft. It's not right to tell someone he's old enough to go to war, but not old enough to vote out the people willing to send him there.

Nah, keep the draft age where it is, military service is a great way to help youngsters grow up quick

I turned 18 in basic training and I'm very happy with where the military has led me, besides, how many other people do you know who are only 26 and already halfway to retirement

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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Can we raise it by a few years?? Pretty please??

I saw a commercial for a show about the youngest generation of voters in this election, it showed interviews with a group of 18 and 19 year olds getting ready to vote for the first time.

They were stating who they were going to vote for and why, and honestly, they sounded like they decided who they should vote for by reading bumper stickers with campaign slogans.

In other words, they're just like adults.

My wife is especially interested in this election and has been staffing campaign phone banks. She's talked to people of all ages who have a reasonable recollection of sound bites and not much real knowledge.

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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Things like:
1) Who is the current vice president of the US?
2) What year did the 9/11 attacks occur in?
3) Which party currently holds the majority of the seats in congress?

None of that is relevant to how things should be running. If your key issue is hookers and beer for everyone, all that matters is whoever happens to be in power isn't giving out free sex and booze. Heck, they're probably even intent on keeping the oldest profession illegal.

For most of us there's at least one other "real" issue that's similar even if we ignore guns and abortion.

And if we do get serious:
1) Karl Rove may be the real president. The VP doesn't matter since although they say he hangs out in an undisclosed location he may be spending his time in Dubai where the government contracting company he was involved with has relocated it's head quarters to.

2) It doesn't matter. With our middle eastern policy a successful attack on US soil was inevitable (the WTC was also bombed in 1993, it was just a matter of time before they pulled something off with a significant body count) with the time being unimportant. If there were other real terrorists in America they'd have been on TV when they were caught and run through kangaroo courts. Since they're not I'm in a lot more danger from eating too many hamburgers or getting run down by a drunk driver so I worry more about such things. Actually, I worry most about the disproportionate cost of living in the first world (and necessary pay checks to survive) when foreign countries are producing oodles of capable people (with 2B Indians and Chinese, only 1 in 7 need to be as good as us to put us out of work when their semi-skilled factory workers make $100-$200 a month and some of their university educated graduates get $5K a year instead of $50K). I worry some about deficit spending devaluing the dollar enough that my investments are worthless so I can't retire when I'm older. I worry about my kids finding homes and careers in that financial world. I don't worry about more terrorists.

3) It doesn't matter because the Democrats don't have a super majority in the house and Bush 43 rubber stamps or vetoes along "party" lines. This doesn't mean that the Republicans I grew up with are in power either. While they used to be the party of small government their discretionary non-Defense spending increases are the highest in history and Bush 43 has made Clinton look like a fiscal conservative.

[GQ_jumper 4]

My wife is especially interested in this election and has been staffing campaign phone banks. She's talked to people of all ages who have a reasonable recollection of sound bites and not much real knowledge.

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Kind of like all the people that say they're voting for Obama because we need change but when you ask them what specifically they feel Obama is going to change they have no idea because all they've done is read his campaign flyers.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

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[kelpdiver 2]

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My wife is especially interested in this election and has been staffing campaign phone banks. She's talked to people of all ages who have a reasonable recollection of sound bites and not much real knowledge.

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Kind of like all the people that say they're voting for Obama because we need change but when you ask them what specifically they feel Obama is going to change they have no idea because all they've done is read his campaign flyers.

Since McCain has pledged to continue the same failed policies, it doesn't matter if they know Obama's goals or not.

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[leroydb 0]

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I'm all for raising it a few years. However, we'd also need to raise the age for the draft. It's not right to tell someone he's old enough to go to war, but not old enough to vote out the people willing to send him there.

ALSO NOTE: That If you can go to war for your country at 18 you SHOULD BE ABLE TO DRINK.

That is all

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[GQ_jumper 4]

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My wife is especially interested in this election and has been staffing campaign phone banks. She's talked to people of all ages who have a reasonable recollection of sound bites and not much real knowledge.

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Kind of like all the people that say they're voting for Obama because we need change but when you ask them what specifically they feel Obama is going to change they have no idea because all they've done is read his campaign flyers.

Since McCain has pledged to continue the same failed policies, it doesn't matter if they know Obama's goals or not.

Why because McCain says we should finish what we started in Iraq?

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

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[jcd11235 0]

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Why because McCain says we should finish what we started in Iraq?

After all, throwing good money after bad is such a great strategy for success.

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

[nanook 1]

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ALSO NOTE: That If you can go to war for your country at 18 you SHOULD BE ABLE TO DRINK

An 18 year old serving does not equal to alchohol responsibility. And if anything, drinking exaberates their problems, not reward them.

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"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln