KidNuz Convos: Is it Time to Lower the Voting Age

Gen Z is all about and motivated by protecting rights like clean air and clean water, school safety, all of those issues. And so one of the things that we've seen is that there's a bit of an uptick in voting, but there’s more of an uptick in community engagement. That is, they don't just want to vote, they want to do something.

Mark Curtis

Welcome to KidNuz Convos. I'm Mark Curtis, a longtime political reporter and a board member of KidNuz. Today, we're gonna discuss the concept of lowering the voting age from its current status of 18 years old. My guest is Dr. Valerie Endres, professor of political communication at Rhode Island College. She is also one of the leaders of the Nationwide American Democracy Project, which tries to get people engaged civically at a younger age. Thanks for joining me, professor.

Dr. Valerie Endres

Oh, it's my pleasure to be here, Mark.

Mark

Well, we are longtime colleagues from when I was a reporter in Rhode Island, so this is exciting. This fall, this November, voters are going to the polls in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City.

At the same time, there are efforts going on across this country as well as other nations around the world to lower the voting age to 16. Why do you think this is happening?

Dr. Valerie Endres

There's a number of surveys out there, and one that really captures my interest was done by a professor at Harvard University. And it was all about youth and what they think about politics. And one of the things that he said is that he believes this generation is the century's greatest generation. And part of the reason that he thinks this is that Gen Z is all about and motivated by protecting rights like clean air and clean water, school safety, all of those issues. And so one of the things that we've seen is that there's a bit of an uptick in voting, but there’s more of an uptick in community engagement. That is, they don't just want to vote, they want to do something. And sometimes that means that we have students as young as 14, 15 years old that are starting their own nonprofits. They're not waiting for the adults to do something. And so this generation, and he argues this, I think, pretty convincingly, is different from previous generations.

Mark

It's interesting, I should mention, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Brazil, and Argentina are among those who have already lowered their voting age to 16. Canada is considering it. We've had a couple states in the United States, Maryland and New Jersey that have lowered the voting age to 16 in state and municipal elections. Well, there's a difference between federal elections that they can't touch, but we'll talk about that. But is part of this that kids are more engaged because they're getting bombarded with the news on the internet, on television? Their parents are listening to it. They're listening to news on KidNuz, and that's getting them engaged in a discussion with their parents and their teachers. And so does that mean this might be a more informed 16 year old today than, say, twenty years ago.

Dr. Valerie Endres

That's absolutely true. But I will say that when I've talked to freshmen who are 18 years old and they're just out of high school, one of the things that they tell me is that they learn a lot from social media. It's where they get their news. But they worry about understanding what's true and what isn't true. And they're really reluctant to engage in any kind of political discussion there. And that's one of the reasons that they're going out and trying to do something, and they feel more comfortable around their peers in talking than they do engaging in social media. They certainly understand that social media is a toxic environment. But, yeah, that's where they get their news.

Mark

Yeah. I I wanna give our KidNuz listeners a little history lesson. The US voted to lower its voting age back in the early seventies from at the time, 21, according to the original constitution. It was lowered to 18 mostly because of the Vietnam War. The theory was if you're old enough to go fight for your country, you ought to be old enough to vote. Do we have a driving force like that now? I don't think we have anything as divisive as the Vietnam War was this day and age.

Dr. Valerie Endres

We don't, but I think, again, this is part of the generation. This is something that students frequently talk about. We bring a lot of high school students to Rhode Island College for programming, and it's one of the issues that seems to rise to the surface for a couple of reasons.

Mark

Let me tell you a very personal story. In 1976, November 1976, when Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford were facing off in the presidential election, I was 17 and a half years old. I was six months shy of being able to vote, and I was really upset. I really wanted to vote in that race.

And my theory was... I was working a job twenty hours a week, and they were taking federal and state taxes out and Social Security contributions. I thought, hey.

I'm working...I’m contributing to the finances of this country. I ought to be able to vote.

Dr. Valerie Endres

Well, that's true. And they believe that they have a stake in society. They pay taxes. They can drive at 16. They can be tried as adults in courts. And so they argue that they deserve representation. And so that's one of the driving forces, but it's not the only one that's out there. One of the things that happens, and I think your audience can relate to this, when people don't vote, they don't necessarily get represented on the issues that are important to them. And we see sort of disproportionately that politicians speak to issues that involve seniors. Why? Because they vote in large numbers. And so part of this has to do with the fact that they want their interest represented, and they want to to have some effect or some impact on policy, whether that's climate change or educational funding or the debt, that they'll inherit — a whole host of issues. And so in some ways they feel ignored and they do want to have a voice on the issues that are important to them. And I I might argue that before these surveys came out about youth, even academics weren't asking questions about what young people are interested in.

Mark

Well, this is a fascinating discussion. We're talking about the potential of lowering the voting age in the United States as they are in many countries around the world. We're talking with professor Valerie Endres of Rhode Island College.

I wanna talk about a little overlap in what you do and what we do. KidNuz is aimed at getting more kids civically engaged, through our podcast, our daily newscast during the school year. You are working on young people civic engagement through what's known as the American Democracy Project.

How does that work? Well, how do those those two things actually kinda work together, don't they, or can't?

Dr. Valerie Endres

They actually do because one of the things that I argue is if we lower the voting age, we have to have supports there for youth, and we need greater emphasis on civic engagement. Your audience gets tested on math and science regularly, but they don't on civic skills.

And so I do very strongly believe that we need to have more active programs on civic engagement. And the reason that I got involved in this is because I deal with a lot of first generation students, and that means their parents didn't go to college. And especially for that group, they sometimes feign disinterest in politics because they don't think they know enough. And social, immediate demands, for example, really, force them to one extreme or the other and they don't want to be labeled that way. So what we try to do is to give them a way to enter the conversation and in a really constructive way. So we ask the students themselves about what kind of programming they want and they want to hear. And we've had some fascinating programs. What we're doing is replacing the experts with students to talk about these issues. I had mentioned earlier that we've had several high school programs where we bring in nearly 500 high school students. And I will tell you that when their teachers engage in that issue with them, they come prepared. And our own college students are intimidated by the quality of their contributions and their questions. And that leads me to this whole notion that I don't think lowering the voter age is necessarily a bad idea.

When people don't vote, they don't necessarily get represented on the issues that are important to them.

Mark

Well, you mentioned that we test kids every day in math and science, but not civics. You will be heartened to know that every day at our KidNuz podcast, we do have a news quiz, and it's one of the students' favorite things to engage in with their teachers is taking the news quiz. So they they look forward to that.  

Dr. Valerie Endres

Thats incredible.

Mark

Yeah. It's really helpful. And you can tell what kids are, you know, drilling down on in terms of issues that are important to them. I mentioned the American Democracy Project. One thing you do every four years, is you take a group of students to New Hampshire to see the New Hampshire presidential primary, first in the nation, in person. And those students, I've engaged with them up in New Hampshire, and they are just so spellbound by the process that they can walk up and shake, a John McCain's hand or a Barack Obama's hand and talk to the candidates face to face. They're blown away by that. So how is that important to have that kind of engagement, you know, like the New Hampshire primary and other hands on things like debates?

Dr. Valerie Endres

Actually, there's a lot of research out there that says that that's how you engage people in a lifelong process. And there's one thing to watch this on television, which is how most of us experience a presidential campaign. But, you know, I'm really lucky in that New Hampshire is so close, and that's one of the few states that engages what we call retail politics. That is the politicians actually have to get out there and meet people and not just have commercials on television. And my students have told me over again that that is a life changing engagement for them. They never forget it. And in fact, I brought students back from twenty and thirty years ago who've gone to New Hampshire, and they still talk about it as if it was yesterday.

And they said it engages them in the whole election season, because they know how that works, and they know how important it is that the politicians who come there, candidates who come there, have to speak the language of the citizens, and that makes it unique.

Mark

Yeah. As a political reporter, it was always my favorite thing to do in a presidential campaign to go to New Hampshire and engage with the people and enjoy the beauty of that state. You know, I mentioned that Maryland and New Jersey and some parts of those two states have lowered the voting age for, you know, municipal elections, for mayor, for city council, or state legislatures.

They have the power to do that in and of themselves. They can change their voting laws for state and local elections. National elections, you would have to amend the constitution, which means getting approval by 38 states. That's a very tall order. Do you think that's doable, maybe not in the next year or so, but in the near future?

Dr. Valerie Endres

I think it's going to take more and more states to engage youth at that municipal and statewide level before that's going to happen. I think you have to have the momentum. So, you know, our founders designed constitutional amendments on purpose to be difficult and it does take a lot of consensus or a lot of agreement in order to get one passed. That's why we have so few. And I think where the promise is on is in individual states. And I would argue that with your audience that if they're in favor of lowering the voting age, they should talk to some of their representatives about that. That's one way in which they can engage in the process. No, but not everybody agrees, including youth, that the voting age ought to be lowered. But if you do think that it should, you should express your opinion to the people who make those decisions.

Mark

And it is the state legislators that vote on constitutional amendments. It's not...

Dr. Valerie Endres

Thats right.

Mark

I mean, congress has to put it on the table, but congress is not the ultimate decider. It's the state legislatures. And the reason I say that is your local representative or your local state senator is always so accessible. In every state I've been to in this country, you don't get to know your congresspeople very well, but, boy, you do know who your local rep is or senator because you run into them at the grocery store. That's where you can weigh in if you wanna talk about this topic or others.

Dr. Valerie Endres

Absolutely. And again, I think sometimes, younger people feel a little bit intimidated by doing that, but I will tell you talking to state legislators, they love, you know, to be in classrooms. They love to understand America's youth because they're the future voters. And, even making an appointment to talk to them or even going as a group is entirely doable.

Mark

I'll give our KidNuz listeners, one last little historical factoid. The first 10 amendments to the constitution were signed on with the constitution. The next 17 amendments, there have only been 17 amendments to the constitution in the 250 years of this country after the the bill of rights, the first 10. So it's not an easy process. It's gone down to defeat numerous ones. So you gotta get out there. You gotta get engaged, and you gotta talk to people.

---

To hear the interview, please listen here.