Question

Alice is writing an essay about raising the legal voting age to 25. What new conflicting information should she be sure to address in her essay?

Eighteen-year-olds are considered adults in courts of law.
Raising the voting age allows voters to gain more life experience.
The voting age in the United States was 21 until the 1960s.
Citizens aged 18–25 have the lowest voter turnout of any other age group.

Answer 1

Good question — here are the key pieces of conflicting information Alice should address (each with a brief note on why it undercuts or complicates the argument to raise the voting age to 25):

- The 26th Amendment. It guarantees the right to vote to citizens 18 and older. Raising the voting age to 25 would require a constitutional amendment or face immediate legal challenge.

- Legal adulthood and responsibilities at 18. Eighteen-year-olds can be tried as adults, join the military, sign contracts, marry, and pay taxes. Denying their vote while keeping those responsibilities appears inconsistent and raises fairness arguments.

- who is affected by public policy. Many major policies (education, student loans, labor market entry, reproductive health, climate) disproportionately affect 18–24-year-olds. Removing their vote would reduce the political voice of people who are directly impacted.

- Causes of low youth turnout. Research suggests low turnout among 18–25 year olds is often due to registration barriers, mobility, low civic education, and institutional factors — not only “lack of life experience.” Structural fixes (automatic registration, same‑day registration, civic education) may raise turnout without disenfranchising young adults.

- Habit‑formation and civic socialization. Evidence indicates voting behavior is shaped early; excluding young people from voting could reduce lifelong civic engagement.

- International and democratic norms. Most democracies set the voting age at 18 (some even at 16). Raising it to 25 would make the U.S. an outlier and invite accusations of age discrimination or elitism.

- Equal protection and age‑discrimination concerns. Raising the age could trigger legal and ethical claims that it arbitrarily discriminates against a defined class of citizens.

- Historical context. The 1971 lowering of the voting age (to 18) was tied to arguments about the draft and equal rights; reversing that history would be politically and rhetorically fraught.

- Practical and political feasibility. Even if argued on civic‑maturity grounds, the political costs, mobilized opposition from youth and civil‑rights groups, and logistical/state-by-state complexity are significant.

Addressing these points will help her anticipate legal, ethical, empirical, and practical counterarguments rather than assuming low turnout or “immaturity” is a sufficient justification.