Ending Continuing Disenfranchisement
I support the fundamental principle of “one person, one vote,” and I interpret the common voting age of 18 in most democracies as contravention of this principle. To sustain the principle, the voting age must be zero: newborn babies (assuming they have citizenship) ought to emerge into the cares and wonders of the world with the right to a vote.
This proposal is far more radical than some recent discussion about incrementally reducing the voting age. It deliberately ignores questions of “competence” and “maturity” that are sometimes bandied when mulling criteria for franchisement.
Of course, we can’t have two-year olds bounding into voting booths alone and scribbling all over their ballots, just saying “no” to all the candidates. Rather, to make this work, the trick would be to assume that kids’ guardians will share in the exercise of this right to a vote initially; and to devise rules governing when and how kids could exercise it with additional levels of autonomy.
To my mind, having parents exercise the right on their kids’ behalf would be just fine: who better to look after the kids’ interests? Why shouldn’t those interests be looked after at the ballot box?
The rules would explain what assistance could be offered, how, and when, with the intent of preventing uncertainty or open conflict between child and guardian about whether to vote and who to vote for.
Note that many practical rules already exist regarding voting assistance for the elderly and disabled. I would favor modifying those rules, too, to ensure that their right to a vote is never rescinded, but see them as a possible source.
I’ve obviously set aside, for the purposes of this discussion, the question of whether people should bother to vote at all.
