Lower the Voting Age to 16, and several more commonsense solutions

Since the global pandemic has rolled across our land, causing death, sickness, and loss of every kind— voting by mail which many states have been doing for decades, has been a commonsense way to go.

It was understood that people want more choices in how they vote, and not fewer.

What’s become clear, is that younger citizens in the United States must be allowed to vote to protect their lives and their future.

The time has come. More voters lead to a stronger democracy. What if there were a way to add millions of newer, younger voters?

How about voting by smartphone and email?

Voting by mobile phone would bring out more young voters, without a doubt.

Voting by mobile phone will change the voting demographic in a single election, two at the most. Massive smartphone turnout for the 2028 presidential election, anyone?

Along with making it easier (not continually adding more barriers to casting a ballot) to vote, let’s consider lowering the voting age to 16.

During the Vietnam war era, the argument was made that if one could fight and die for our country, one should have the right to vote at the age of 18. And so, the voting age was lowered.

Now, we’re living in a time of a mass shooting epidemic, a lingering global pandemic, and a Climate Crisis that’s just ramping up. If kids in school are expected to learn in a classroom that could be turned into a war zone at any moment, the same rules for voting must apply. If children are expected to put their lives on the line to get an in-person education, give them the right to vote. Any United States citizen, starting at age 16 should be able to vote, especially on the gun control issue that impacts their very lives, every single day.

Vote for your life, breathable air, and a sustainable future.

It’s already happened in Scotland, and is being considered in Canada.

In 2015, Scotland lowered the voting age to 16, to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local council elections. In 2020, Canadian Senator Marilou McPhedran brought forth a bill to lower the voting age from 18 to 16, for federal elections.

To all of the brainy tech wizards living in the United States willing and able to change history for the better (according to reality, not delusions): Get to work making it safe and secure to vote mobile in upcoming presidential elections.

Start creating, developing, and building an app that can be street legal for the November 2028 election. Mobile-ready, safe, un-hackable by subversive groups and disruptive individuals or groups  in our country, and/or Russian hackers. There’s your creative brief. Have at it.

Voting by smartphone is the ideal safe voting solution geared for this moment in history, and not just another reason for politicians to let down the American people. Everyone carries around a phone connected to the Internet. Voting via Internet is already being done, by United States citizen living overseas.

Political leaders, you too can step up and make a stand for democracy it. Turn this into your issue—think about voting by mail and smartphone as a lifesaving tool, to make society ready—before the next pandemic, electrical grid attack, or power-disrupting superstorm rolls into town.

Along with the technology and security connected with voting, there must be a complete shift in thinking about the eligible age for voting.

Since younger people have already stepped up and shown they possess the courage and knowledge to add to the global conversation by coming up with workable solutions to the Climate Crisis, they deserve to choose the next leaders of our country. They should be the ones who are deciding their future. The right to vote should be lowered to 16, Before we vote for president of the United States in November 2028.

By lowering the voting age to 16, a greater number of young people will have a voice in the political conversation, and completely change our political system for generations to come. Naturally, the pure outrage of youth will help to end voter suppression, gerrymandering, corporate billions buying politicians by the cartload, and speaking out against every other form of corrupt voting practice.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935, he was creating a financial and cultural safety net for that time and for future generations. We’ve all met someone who has benefitted from this plan, and it’s time for visionary political leaders to step forward to protect for the future, and expand this vital national governmental benefit. If one party can install far-right extremists to sit on the Supreme Court, and broadcast that they’d be willing to take away America’s Social Security benefits—informed young citizens should be there to cast a vote on this issue, for their parents and grandparents.

As in the time of FDR we need more political leaders to act, before corrupting corporate greed chips away more pieces of our democracy.

If this historical moment isn’t the time for another massive cultural, social, and political shift, then what will it take? This is America’s next New Deal Moment. Lives are at stake, the same way they were back in the 1930s and 40s. The citizens of the United States have seen too many rights taken away. This is wrong as wrong can be. Their eyes are open, and they’ve shown what smart, engaged voters who want to help create a better society look like.

It’s time to welcome younger voters into the system, so they can begin changing history.

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Happy New Year!