Kids why is it important to vote

Addressing the level of engagement of our children and youth is important to all of us and we can, over time, turn the negative trend around. One way is by bringing your child with you when you vote! Skip to main content. When people become able to vote, politicians work harder to cater to them. Politicians working harder to cater to young people would be a good thing, given the devastating recent rise in child poverty.

There are a host of good reasons to give children the vote. Here are four I want to highlight:. The US Constitution holds that the right to vote cannot be abridged on the basis of race, color, previous condition of servitude, sex, or age The arguments against universal suffrage have taken a few forms. The most principled democratic stance is that suffrage should be universal.

Research suggests that voters are not very informed. Does that mean that democracy is a failed experiment?

Not at all. They are more peaceful than non-democratic societies, have better human rights records and stronger economies, and they are more likely to protect the environment. So somehow, this system — for all its frequent and costly flaws — does, actually, do better than any other system of government. In fact, much of what democracy does is secure buy-in from the population.

Right now, young people express breathtaking cynicism about the U. So, will adding some less-informed voters make democracy fall apart? Not likely. Second, a lot of people underestimate how informed kids can be. Third, if you want more informed voters, giving kids the opportunity to vote will also likely give them more motivation to learn about politics and engage seriously with it.

Some researchers have looked into why not and found a mundane explanation: They lead unstable lives that our voting system accounts for poorly. Many young adults are in short-term housing situations, off at college or trade school, or in a first job or apartment. Realizing these benefits might require schools to actively work to help students register and, on the day of the election, helping them to vote. Schools are well-equipped to do that many do it for fake mock elections in class anyway.

But between schools and parents, children would have more supports in making it to the polls than young adults living alone in college or their first full-time jobs. Lowering the voting age does seem to help at least a little bit to create a population of high-participation, civically engaged voters — or, at least, it did so when Austria tried it.

In they became the first country in the EU to lower their voting age from 18 to The and year-olds were more likely to turn out to vote than year olds, and researchers found that they were no less informed and were as likely as older voters to make choices that reflected their values. Takoma Park, Maryland, saw promising results too. Turnout among year olds in the first city election after they were extended the franchise was nearly double turnout for voters 18 and up.

And research from Denmark suggests that parents whose children have a vote are themselves more likely to vote. The researchers studied this by comparing children who turned 18 just in time for the election to children who turned 18 a day too late. Grown-ups lose their tempers just like kids do.

It's good to apologize when we lose our cool. Talk about how to manage big feelings by taking time to calm down in a quiet space or with a deep breath. During election season, media stories about hard-to-understand issues may cause kids concern.

One of the best tactics to alleviate worry is to focus on kid-sized solutions. Whether you vote by mail or in person, show your children the ballot most states have sample ballots online and even help them create their own! Represent the election results with a jar of bottle caps, crayons, or other household objects. Start with objects and then divide them into two jars to represent the percentage of the vote each candidate received.

Use words like more and fewer with younger children. Older children may want to help you count or write numbers on cards to label the jar for each candidate.

There are a lot of signs an election is near including bumper stickers, election signs, television commercials, and even campaign phone calls that interrupt dinner. Point out these concrete examples of election season and encourage your child to notice them as well. After all, these signals encourage us to learn about the candidates and remind us to vote!

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