The Voting Age Must Be Lowered for Democracy to Exist in America Imagine for a moment that the elderly were denied the right to vote. Imagine that the elderly are considered too incompetent to vote because some elderly people are senile. Can you imagine such a large percentage of the American public being denied the right to vote – simply because of their age? That can't happen in America, right? Not in a free country, a country where the people control the government and not the other way around? It can happen. Happens. Except this doesn't happen to the elderly: once they have obtained the right to vote, they retain it for life. It happens to young people, to people under eighteen. Young people are denied the right to vote solely because of their age. America is not a democracy if young people are denied the right to vote. Democracy is defined by Webster's Dictionary as “government by the people”. If some people – young people – are denied the right to vote for government leaders, then the American government is not “of the people.” The Declaration of Independence states that governments are established with the consent of the governed and that governments can be overthrown when the people no longer consent. Laws that young people are forced to obey are passed every day across the nation. Some of these laws only affect young people, such as curfew laws and compulsory school attendance laws. Most of these laws affect the entire population and all American citizens. Yet young people have no say in these laws, nor in the legislators who enact them, nor in politics, nor in the rules they must follow. According to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, young people born in the United States are Am... middle of paper... lowered if we want America to be a free and democratic nation and we want to guarantee young people their human right to take participates in the affairs of their nation by being able to vote. Works cited DG "Elective elections". Education Week on the web. February 10, 1998. http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-11/13boxh11Franklin, Bob. "Children's political rights". Children's rights. February 10, 1998. http://www.bconnex.net/~cspcc/crime_prevention/rights.htmSt. Louis Post Dispatch, December 19, 1997, research provided by Keith Mandell. (February 12, 1998). “Ten Questions, One Easy Answer: Questions and Answers on Child Suffrage.” ACS: Child Suffrage Association. February 16, 1998. http://www.brown.edu/Students/Association_for_Childrens_Suffrage/"Voting." ASFAR: Americans for an age-free society. February 11th 1998>