Children over the age of 15 should be allowed to vote

Some people suggest that affording children over fifteen the right to vote would lead to a better society. After all, the more voices are heard in a democracy, the more legitimacy elected leaders have. Be that as it may, I believe that society would actually be worse off if fifteen-year-olds were allowed to vote. Teenagers are too immature to vote, and often simply copy the preferences of their parents.

Fifteen, is simply put, not very old. Children at that age lack the emotional maturity needed to make intelligent decisions when voting. They often feel passionately about a topic one day only to have their interest fizzle out the next; clearly, that causes problems when the decisions made affect people throughout society. Fifteen-year-olds also lack the sophistication needed to distinguish between truly valuable causes and those that are merely exciting. Politicians would simply speak to the emotions of the younger voters during speeches, and teenagers might vote for frivolous policies, such as longer school vacations. But voting should not be taken so lightly—no choice, arguably, could be of more importance.

I also believe it would be a mistake to allow fifteen-year-olds to vote because they are likely to simply copy the preferences of their parents. For example, during elections, voters are often influenced by economic factors, such as promises to provide tax breaks, the expansion of social aid programs. But fifteen-year-olds are not economically independent. Their financial situations depend on those of their parents. For this reason, their parents would influence them to vote to most help the family financially, which is not honest democracy. To make matters worse, politicians would realize that families usually vote in the same way, and start emphasizing policies helping families at the expense of other interest groups in order to get their votes. For example, politicians might promise to raise money for schools by taxing businesses. This would effectively give parents a disproportionately large influence.

There is a good reason that virtually no country on the planet allows people who are so young to vote. They have yet to mature into responsible tax-paying citizens. Their interests are fickle, and not aligned with what is best for society as a whole. It would be a mistake to give them influence in the democratic process.