Lower Voting Age in Wisconsin?

[pk]

State Representative Cory Mason (D-Racine) wants to give 17-year-olds the ability to vote in state and local elections. He has introduced an amendment to the state constitution that would allow most senior to cast ballots during their last year in high school.

Please check out the full story and tell us what you think:

STORY HERE: Wisconsin Radio Network: A move to drop the voting age

[dgridley]

Anyone old enough to be inducted into military service should also be allowed to vote IMO.

[Latina]

Originally Posted by dgridley

Anyone old enough to be inducted into military service should also be allowed to vote IMO.

Not sure how i feel about that, dealing with 17 yr old daily i see some who are very mature, but many who are easily influenced & immature, then again that rings true for many 18 yr olds as well.

Next thing you know we will hear that 17 yr olds should be allowed to drink, saying "If we are old enough to vote or fight for our country, you should be old enough to drink". How many times have we heard "If we can fight for our country, we should be allowed to drink"? When it comes to these kids wanting the drinking age lowered? I don't know about you, but i've heard about that time & again, online & off.

[Twoaday]

Latina And how is that not a reasonable argument? We can ask our young to go die for us but they can't have a beer? They can vote for the President of the U.S. but not have a beer? I'm sorry but I'll always believe this is wrong and in fact makes our underage drinking worse, not better.

[pk]

I'm for raising the driving age from 16 to 17 even 18. Facts show a younger teen gets in more accidents. They are not mature even to make quick decision at times to avoid accidents. Fact.

I'm for keeping the drinking age up, the higher the better if you ask me. Teens and drinking = trouble. Fact.

Voting? They are talking about lowering for state voting not for Presidential voting etc. I am for this if it is implemented in schools where they go over the upcoming elections and they set up the voting booth in the schools for the kids to vote while supervised by teachers in case there is any questions. Good learning experience.

The question I have, if a teen is old enough to vote, what does that have to do with drinking?

[Latina]

Originally Posted by Twoaday

Latina And how is that not a reasonable argument? We can ask our young to go die for us but they can't have a beer? They can vote for the President of the U.S. but not have a beer? I'm sorry but I'll always believe this is wrong and in fact makes our underage drinking worse, not better.

I beg to differ.. If it means keeping our kids from voting or going into the service, so be it... Kids are too easy to overdo a drink here & there, becoming alcoholics without a chance... for me to say yes they should be allowed to drink. At least at an older age they have a chance at being mature enough to make right decisions, not a chance in hell for a 17 yr old... thats just MY opinion, no one has to agree. Having an 18 yr old who i try so hard to keep away from drinking (he has alcoholism on both sides of his family & alcohol eventually killed his dad), i wouldnt want the law to say he his mature enough to do it , when i know he isn't. again this is just IMO

Should they be able to buy cigarettes at 17? It's just as addicting & why not, since they can fight for our country right? how about guns & amo?

[Latina]

Originally Posted by dgridley

Anyone old enough to be inducted into military service should also be allowed to vote IMO.

Originally Posted by pk

The question I have, if a teen is old enough to vote, what does that have to do with drinking?

Many have said "if they can fight for our country they should be allowed to drink"...this is why i brought up the drinking thing, i was just saying it was a matter of time before someone would say that

Originally Posted by Twoaday

Latina And how is that not a reasonable argument? We can ask our young to go die for us but they can't have a beer? They can vote for the President of the U.S. but not have a beer? I'm sorry but I'll always believe this is wrong and in fact makes our underage drinking worse, not better.

and i was right... one has nothing to do with the other, but it's the common arguement.

[pk]

Many have said "if they can fight for our country they should be allowed to drink"...this is why i brought up the drinking thing, i was just saying it was a matter of time before someone would say that..

and i was right... one has nothing to do with the other, but it's the common argument.

You are so right so many argue that if they can fight they should be able to drink. . Putting the two together as if it is a privilege to be able to drink so if they can fight, and vote they should drink too. But what the law is doing (once again) is trying to protect our young adults/older teens from doing something that is wrong for them.

It has been a proven fact that teens and very young adults make wrong decisions when drinking, because they are not yet fully developed mentally and physically there for leading them to take more risks when drinking. It's an age thing.

The military encourages younger adults to join mainly because they are young and not fully developed so there can mold them into soldiers and help them to learn to live as such. If asked the military leader surely tell you that they would not want young adults drinking since it will mentally take away from the learning experiences they are trying to instill.

So using the, "if we can go to war" etc. line to argue to have the drinking age lowered has no real basis or contains nothing as far as facts to help.

So tell me again, what does one have to do with the other? Nothing.

So I totally agree with you. I personally think anyone that tries to put the argument that it does have everything to do with each other shows a lack of maturity. IMHO.