(April 25, 2016 at 11:01 am)TheRealJoeFish Wrote: Looking over the Wikipedia article on the matter, one of the main factors in why voting age is 18, and not 20 or 21, is because most countries, when they have wars, need 18-year-olds to fill out their military ranks, and there is a fundamental sense of unfairness in sending someone to die without at least giving them a nominal say in the matter. Many nations lowered voting age post-WWII. In the USA, it took not only WWII but the (exceedingly unpopular) Vietnam War to bring about the 26th Amendment to the US Constitution, putting the age at 18 instead of 21.
I didn't know this before reading the article, but in the US there are 20 states that let 17-year-olds vote in the Primary election if they will be 18 on or before the general election. Interesting. Additionally, localities are free to regulate their own voting, and some have lowered the age to 16 for things like municipal elections.
Wikipedia Article on Voting Age
That actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks for posting it!
