Voting Age
Since the 1990s elected officials in several U.S. states have made unsuccessful attempts to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 and sometimes even younger.[1]
Student activism in the wake of the Feb. 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, brought new life to the debate about letting younger people vote in elections.[2]
Internationally, about a dozen countries allow citizens to vote at age 16, sometimes with conditions such as being employed or married, including Argentina, Austria, Brazil, and Ecuador. [48]
To propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, for lowering the national voting age to 16, two-thirds of both houses of the U.S. Congress (or two-thirds of U.S. states) would need to approve the proposal; then, three-fourths of the states (meaning 38 of them) would need to ratify it. However, cities can pass laws allowing younger people to vote in local elections.[3][4]
Until the 1970s the voting age in America was 21. A debate over lowering it to 18 began during World War II when President Franklin D. Roosevelt decreased the military draft age to 18. President Dwight D. Eisenhower called for citizens ages 18 to 21 to be included in the political process in his 1954 State of the Union address. But lawmakers didn’t take action until marches and demonstrations drew attention to the fact that young people who were being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War did not also have the right to vote. Fighting for your country, perhaps dying for your county, while not also having the right to vote in your country, seemed to many a disparity that needed to be remedied.[43][44]
As a result, Congress proposed the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1971, which stated, “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.” The ratification process, which required the approval of 38 states, was completed in about three months, the shortest amount of time of any amendment in U.S. history.[45][46]
While the push to lower the voting age even further is an uphill battle, some smaller jurisdictions have done so. A dozen or so cities in California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Vermont allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections, including school board elections.[52][53][54]
So, should the U.S. voting age be lowered to 16?
Pros and Cons at a Glance
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Pro 1: 16-year-olds are just as knowledgeable about civics and have the same ability to make good voting choices as older voters. Read More. | Con 1: 16-year-olds are not mature enough to participate responsibly in elections. Read More. |
| Pro 2: Lowering the voting age to 16 would increase voter turnout and encourage a lifelong habit of voting. Read More. | Con 2: Not only do 16-year-olds lack life experience, but they have even performed horribly in civics education. Read More. |
| Pro 3: 16-year-olds should have a voice in the laws that affect their lives and future. Read More. | Con 3: The majority of Americans of all ages and political views agree that 16-year-olds should not be allowed to vote. Read More. |
Pro Arguments
(Go to Con Arguments)Pro 1: 16-year-olds are just as knowledgeable about civics and have the same ability to make good voting choices as older voters.
A study in theAnnals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2011 found “on measures of civic knowledge, political skills, political efficacy, and tolerance, 16-year-olds, on average, are obtaining scores similar to those of adults…. Adolescents in this age range are developmentally ready to vote.” [7]
Some scientists believe that “cold cognition” skills, those used to make the kind of informed, well-thought-out choices needed in voting, are solidly established in 16-year-olds.[8]
Austria lowered the voting age to 16 in 2007. According to Markus Wagner, social sciences professor at the University of Vienna, and his coauthors, studies of elections after the Austrian voting age was lowered show “the quality of these [younger] citizens’ choices is similar to that of older voters, so they do cast votes in ways that enable their interests to be represented equally well.”[9]
Pro 2: Lowering the voting age to 16 would increase voter turnout and encourage a lifelong habit of voting.
The United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates among developed countries, but a person who votes in one election has a 13% greater probability of voting in a future election. Researchers say that people who participate in elections when they first reach voting age are more likely to develop the habit of voting, and those who don’t are more likely to remain nonvoters. So why not begin voting at an earlier age?[18][19][20][21]
Sixteen-year-olds are learning about government and civics in high school, and this structured environment for learning would lead to higher turnout among 16- and 17-year-olds as teachers and parents help them overcome the typical obstacles that first-time voters face, such as the registration process and finding their polling places. By contrast, many 18-year-olds are busier, in a time of transition, making them less likely to participate in elections. [9][22][23]
Involving young people in voting can also have a “trickle up” effect that mobilizes their parents and other adults in their households to vote, increasing the overall voter turnout rate. Turnout among 16- and 17-year-olds in Takoma Park, Maryland, the first U.S. municipality to lower the voting age for local elections, was double that of eligible voters 18 and older.[24][25][26]
Pro 3: 16-year-olds should have a voice in the laws that affect their lives and future.
A U.S. Senate report cited student activism and protests as reasons for lowering the voting age to 18 in the 1970s during the Vietnam War: “We must channel these energies into our political system and give young people the real opportunity to influence our society in a peaceful and constructive manner.”[33]
Students today live under threats to their futures, such as school shootings and climate change, and they deserve to have influence over their elected officials beyond the protests they’ve organized. [34]
Sofie Whitney, a survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, says, “If 16-year-old students are old enough to be affected by the laws, and realize that there is a problem, then they should have the power to help change it.” Adds 16-year-old Elijah Robinson, in a statement highlighted on the website of Vote16USA, a major advocate for allowing younger people to vote, “16-year-olds deal with peer pressure, gun violence, drugs, bullying and more. We’re mature enough to rise above all of that, and we do have a voice.”[35][55]
Moreover, the age of 16 is when people’s relationship with the law changes as they often start driving, working, and paying taxes. Furthermore, in most states, 16-year-olds can be emancipated from their parents and live independently. [36][37][38][49]
Con Arguments
(Go to Pro Arguments)Con 1: 16-year-olds are not mature enough to participate responsibly in elections.
Not only do 16-year-olds lack enough life experience to vote responsibly, recent scholarship shows they are also not neurologically and physiologically mature enough for responsible citizenship. As researchers Tak Wing Chan and Matthew Clayton point out, “neuroscience suggests that the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, is still undergoing major reconstruction and development during the teenage years.” The prefrontal cortex is what “enables us to weigh dilemmas, balance trade-offs and, in short, make reasonable decisions in politics.” [10][11][12]
Moreover, society for good reason subjects people under 18 to different labor, contract, and criminal responsibility laws. They aren’t even allowed to join the military without parental consent, serve on a jury, get guns, or even smoke cigarettes. Most 16- and 17-year-olds, in fact, are still living at home and therefore, in many cases, would simply mimic the voting behavior of their parents.[13][14][15][16][17]
Why would we want such kids, so lacking in maturity and independent life experience, making decisions that affect all of society? Experiencing horrible events such as gun violence and bullying at school are not substitutes for the maturity needed for wise citizenship.
Con 2: Not only do 16-year-olds lack life experience, but they have even performed horribly in civics education.
Even in the few civics classes they do experience, students have routinely performed poorly in them, giving us little confidence in their ability to engage in prudent citizenship. Only 20 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above the “proficient” level on the last National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test of civics knowledge and skills in 2022. This marks a decline from 21 percent in the previous two iterations of the text in 2018 and 1998. Furthermore, 31 percent are below the NAEP “basic” level, which means a large number of eighth-graders could not “define government, constitution, the rule of law, and politics,” which are basic tenets of civic knowledge needed to vote. [56]
Moreover, eighth-grade scores on the NAEP U.S. History test dropped to their lowest point ever in 2022. Only 13 percent of students scored at or above the “proficient” level, and 40 percent scored below the “basic” level, which means a large number of eighth graders could not choose the correct multiple choice answer for why people supported the Eighteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Of course, many adults today may also be unable to pass a civics exam, but life experience can also spur good citizenship and good voting habits and make up for a lack of “book knowledge.” However, 16-year-olds lack this life experience as well.[57]
While eighth-grade test results from 2022 may seem outdated, those 13- and 14-year-olds are now 16 and older. Given that the last round of 12th-grade test results were hardly stellar, it’s fair to assume those kids in eighth grade in 2022 don’t have much more knowledge about civics and U.S. history now. [58]
“My concern is if 16-year-olds were allowed to vote on any kind of broad scale, what we’d actually be doing is bringing the least politically informed, the least politically experienced, the least mature in terms of making long-term judgments and trade-offs, directly into and potentially affecting our voter turnout and results,” says David Davenport, research fellow at the Hoover Institution. [32]
Con 3: The majority of Americans of all ages and political views agree that 16-year-olds should not be allowed to vote.
A Hill-HarrisX poll found that 84% of registered voters opposed lowering the voting age to 16. The poll found that every age group was against allowing 16-year-olds to vote. Those most in favor of this idea were adults under age 35, but they still accounted for only 39% of those polled. [47]
A different survey found only 8% support for lowering the voting age to 16; 45% want to keep it at 18; and 46% would like to raise it back to age 21. [40]
A Twitter poll by WJLA, the ABC news affiliate in Washington, D.C., found just 18% support for a proposed bill to lower the voting age to 16 in the District of Columbia, compared to 77% against. The local NBC news affiliate ran a similar poll online in which 83% of participants were against the bill. [41][42]
Assessment Quiz
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1-minute Survey
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Discussion Questions
- Should the voting age be lowered to 16? Why or why not?
- Would lowering the voting age increase voter turnout? Explain your answer?
- Would lowering the voting age lead to increased civic knowledge and participation? Why or why not?
Take Action
- Explore the campaign to lower the voting age with Vote16USA.
- Learn more about the 26th Amendment at the National Constitution Center.
- Explore “Preregistration for Young Voters” at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
- Consider David Davenport’s con argument, including that other laws (governing activities such as driving, drinking, and smoking) have increased ages instead of lowering them based on the immaturity of teenagers.
- Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.
- Push for the position and policies you support by writing U.S. senators and representatives.
Sources
- National Youth Rights Association, “The Movement to Lower the Voting Age: A History,” youthrights.org (accessed April 29, 2025)
- Joshua Douglas, “Parkland Students Show Why 16-Year-Olds Should Be Able to Vote,” cnn.com, Feb. 20, 2018
- National Archives, “Constitutional Amendment Process,” archives.gov (accessed Nov. 1, 2018)
- David Davenport, “No, We Shouldn’t Lower the Voting Age to 16,” forbes.com, May 25, 2016
- Fenit Nirappil, “D.C. Council Declines to Take up Bill to Lower Voting Age to 16,” washingtonpost.com, Nov. 14, 2018
- Generation Citizen, “Lowering the Voting Age for Local Elections in 2017 and Beyond,” vote16usa.org, Jan. 2017
- Daniel Hart and Robert Atkins, “American Sixteen- and Seventeen-Year-Olds Are Ready to Vote,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Jan. 2011
- Laurence Steinberg, “Why We Should Lower the Voting Age to 16,” nytimes.com, Mar. 2, 2018
- Markus Wagner et al., “Voting at 16: Turnout and the Quality of Vote Choice,” Electoral Studies, June 2012
- Mori Social Research Institute, “Young People’s Attitudes Towards Politics,” ipsos.com, July 2003
- Tak Wing Chan and Matthew Clayton, “Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to Sixteen? Normative and Empirical Considerations,” Political Studies, Oct. 2006
- Robert Tracinski, “Why It’s Time to Raise the Voting Age Back to 21,” thefederalist.com, Feb. 27, 2018
- US Department of Labor, “Workers under 18,” dol.gov (accessed Nov. 1, 2018)
- US Legal, “Contract by a Minor,” contracts.uslegal.com (accessed Nov. 1, 2018)
- United States Courts, “Juror Qualifications,” uscourts.gov (accessed Nov. 1, 2018)
- Today’s Military, “Review Military Entrance Requirements,” todaysmilitary.com (accessed Nov. 1, 2018)
- Damian Medina, “Why California Should Definitely Not Lower Voting Age to 17,” sandiegouniontribune.com, June 23, 2017
- Drew Desilver, “U.S. Trails Most Developed Countries in Voter Turnout,” pewresearch.org, May 21, 2018
- Kevin Denny and Orla Doyle, “Does Voting History Matter? Analysing Persistence in Turnout,” jstor.org, Jan. 2009
- Daniel Hart and James Youniss, Renewing Democracy in Young America, 2017
- Mark N. Franklin, Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Electoral Competition in Established Democracies since 1945, Apr. 2004
- Eric Plutzer, “Becoming a Habitual Voter: Inertia, Resources, and Growth in Young Adulthood,” American Political Science Review, Mar. 2002
- Eva Zeglovits and Julian Aichholzer, “Are People More Inclined to Vote at 16 Than at 18? Evidence for the First-Time Voting Boost among 16- to 25-Year-Olds in Austria,” Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties, Oct. 2014
- Amy Linimon and Mark Joslyn, “Trickle Up Political Socialization: The Impact of Kids Voting USA on Voter Turnout in Kansas,” State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Mar. 2002
- Jens Olav Dahlgaard, “The Surprising Consequence of Lowering the Voting Age,” washingtonpost.com, Mar. 1, 2018
- National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, “Solid Turnout for 16 and 17 Year Old Voters in Takoma Park, MD,” naspa.org (accessed Nov. 1, 2018)
- Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, “The Youth Vote in 2022,” circle.tufts.edu (accessed Oct. 6, 2024)
- Emily Guskin, “Are Young Voters Going to Sway the Midterms? New Data Shows That’s Not Very Likely.,” washingtonpost.com, Aug. 1, 2018
- United States Elections Project, “Voter Turnout Demographics,” electproject.org (accessed Nov. 1, 2018)
- Civic Youth, “National Voter Turnout Figures - Civic Youth,” civicyouth.org (accessed Oct. 26, 2018)
- National Assessment of Educational Progress, “2014 Civics Assessment,” nationsreportcard.gov (accessed Nov. 1, 2018)
- Devyn Rafols-Nuñez, “Push to Lower the Voting Age Gains Traction across the States,” nbcnews.com, June 24, 2018
- Justia, Jolicoeur v. Mihaly, law.justia.com, 1971
- Washington Post Editorial Board, “Give a Lower Voting Age a Try,” washingtonpost.com, Apr. 13, 2018
- Rainesford Stauffer, “These Teens Marched for Gun Laws. They Were Just Getting Warmed Up.,” thinkprogress.org, May 29, 2018
- Eric Zorn, “It’s Only Logical — 16-Year-Olds Should Have the Right to Vote,” chicagotribune.com, Apr. 26, 2018
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- Lehigh Valley Opinion, “Poll: Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to 16? Raised to 21?,” lehighvalleylive.com, Feb. 27, 2018
- WJLA Staff, “A New Bill Is Being Proposed in D.C. That Would Lower Voting Age to 16,” wjla.com, Apr. 10, 2018
- WJLA Web Staff, “Bill Lowering Voting Age to 16 Proposed in D.C.,” mynbc15.com, Apr. 18, 2018
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- NCC Staff, “Just Which State Ratified the 26th Amendment?,” constitutioncenter.org, June 30, 2017
- The Hill, “Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Reject Lowering Voting Age to 16,” thehill.com, May 3, 2019
- Maggie Astor, “16-Year-Olds Want a Vote. Fifty Years Ago, So Did 18-Year-Olds.,” nytimes.com, May 19, 2019
- James A. Anderson, “Why We Should Lower the Voting Age to 16,” nextcity.org, July 20, 2020
- Lauren Young, “These Teens Are Leading the Fight to Lower the Voting Age,” teenvougue.com, Aug. 13, 2020
- Celine Castronuovo, “San Francisco Considers Changing Local Voting Age to 16,” thehill.com Sep. 12, 2020
- Lisa Rathke, “Brattleboro, Vt. Lowers Local Voting Age to 16 After Legislature Overrode Veto,” wbur.org, June 28, 2023
- Brett Peveto, “Some Maryland Communities Lowering Voting Age to 16,” publicnewsservice.org, Sept. 19, 2023
- National Youth Rights Association, “Places that have lowered their voting age to 16,” youthrights.org, March 25, 2025.
- Elijah Robinson, vote16usa.org (accessed April 29, 2025)
- The Nation’s Report Card, “NAEP Report Card: 2022 NAEP Civics Assessment Highlighted Results at Grade 8 for the Nation,” nationsreportcard.gov (accessed April 29, 2025)
- The Nation’s Report Card, “NAEP Report Card: U.S. History,” nationsreportcard.gov (accessed April 29, 2025)
- The Nation’s Report Card, nationsreportcard.gov (accessed April 29, 2025)