Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Time for a maximum voting age?

Via NYRA, this study found that "older voters both seek out and recall less information about candidates" (starting in their mid-to-late 60's) and thus have a harder time voting "correctly", that is, choosing the candidate who share their positions and ideology. "By the time voters turn 90, the scholars’ models predict their correct level of voting will be roughly half of what it was when they were 20."

If the motivation for the minimum voting age is that young people can't be trusted to "understand politics" well enough to vote correctly, then clearly we should look into setting a maximum voting age as well. Senior citizens are well-known as an important voting bloc, though, so of course that won't happen.

One might conclude from the silence on this issue, however, that the motivation for the minimum voting age is not that young people can't be trusted to choose the candidate who best matches their positions and ideology, and thus wouldn't be accurately represented. Rather, the point of denying them the vote is that the older ruling class doesn't want young people to be accurately represented in government.

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