Essay themes: Internet voting; lowering the age at which one can run for office to 18 years

BENJAMIN M. MISHOE
HUNTINGTON, WV
College student, Born:1978

Essay themes: Internet voting; lowering the age at which one can run for office to 18 years

As a 21-year-old college student and voter, I realize that a lot of people my age are interested in, and participating in a lot of things. Schooling would probably be the most important, followed by socializing and family matters among other things. Voting, however, does not appear to be a major concern among people my age. You've asked the question, what can be done to increase participation among young people, and you've offered a few suggestions. While I believe some of these suggestions might help, I believe some of the problem might come from the politicians themselves. I realize that there are a lot of politicians reading this, and I don't mean to say that you're doing anything wrong, please hear me out. I am 21 years old. I have voted in every election that I have been allowed since I was 18, every primary, every city, state, and national election that has been held. I was homeschooled for a large majority of my education. One of the things that my mom did at least once a year is take us to the state capital and watch the legislature proceedings. She would take us around to meet some of the delegates and senators. I was able to serve as a page in both the senate and the house at least once. I became fascinated by the whole procedure from an early age. This is probably one of the main reasons for my participation as a voter. I was able to see these people, and the things that they do, up close and personal. I think that too many young people don't know who and what they're voting for, and therefore don't care.

Now let me offer a few suggestions on how to get them to care and participate. Of the suggestions for reform that were suggested, I feel that most of them would not make a big difference. I would think that the people who don't vote probably wouldn't even understand half of those things. I'll be honest, I don't even understand some of them. One thing that everyone understands that I believe would make a big difference is Internet voting. This would almost definitely increase the amount of people voting, but it worries me. The main thing that worries me about this is security. Precautions could be made to help prevent tampering, but I don't think there is any way of knowing for sure if Internet voting would be fair. It seems that it would make voting a lot easier for those that own a computer, but what about for those that don't? For people without Internet access in their homes it would not help them at all. They would still have to leave their homes to vote, whether it is in person or by computer. This is not fair and could cause the results of elections to not be a proper representation of all of the voters. Plus it would be harder to monitor voters to make sure that people are not voting more than once by using other peoples names. Until these issues are addressed, I don't think Internet voting is an option.

My main suggestion gets back to what I said about the problem being the politicians themselves. I would like to see the age that a person is allowed to run for office lowered to 18. I know this is a pretty drastic change, but I believe it would be a change for the better. I don't believe that the voter age should be lowered. Eighteen seems like an age where young people can hear the candidate's position on certain issues and make an educated decision as to who they feel would best represent them in office. But I also believe that once you gain the right to vote, you should gain the right to vote for any candidate that you feel would truly be the best representative, regardless of their age. To put it simply, if you are old enough to vote for office, you should be old enough to run for office. Critics might say that there is no way that a person that is 18 years old could possibly understand the plight of a 45 year old with kids to take care of and bills to pay. While this might be true, I don't see how a 45-year-old could understand what an 18-year-old is going through. Times have changed dramatically since that 45-year-old person was 18. These days, there is a growing trend of young adults, between the ages of 18 and 30, who are becoming successful entrepreneurs and investors. This is a fact. This is a trend that will almost definitely continue to increase in the future. Eventually, the opportunity for these young citizens to run for office must be allowed. If and when this is allowed, I believe that there will be a strong increase in young voter turnout. However, this will not necessarily be a positive change. Just because more young people vote does not mean that they will be knowledgeable about the issues. They might base their vote solely on the fact that the person running is their age. This is a downside to the issue. I don't know if lowering the age that a person is allowed to run for office has ever been considered. Section. 2. Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution says: No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty-five Years. This is our constitution, which I strongly believe in. But this is one clause that could afford to be reviewed. I do not have the knowledge to say for sure that this should be changed. But I believe that it would not hurt to consider it. In closing, consider this. There are plenty of older people in office that don't know what they're doing as there might be younger. Let's let the people decide.