It really pisses me off when the government is on the youth's ass to go out in vote. You have to be 18 to vote. What do they expect from us? What I don't get is I'm allowed to drive a 3 ton vehicle when I turn 16, but I can't vote for who I think should rule my country.

Now I hate to bring Fahrenheit 9/11 up since it's already been heavily bashed by some of you fucking Conservative Republicans. :p Anywho, I'll say this now. This movie WILL effect the voting. Not everyone watches the news and belongs to this BB. I guarantee over 85 % of that audience I was with believed it all was true. All I heard on the way out was "Bush is such a moron. I think I know who I'm voting for now."

Now, I mentioned this because most of you probably think that misguided kids (under 18) would believe mostly what they hear on TV and see in the movies. There are as many kids as their are adults that are just the same. For every misguided kid, there's a misguided adult. -Pat

The voting age is fine as it is. Once you are out of high school you are pretty much expected to be able to function as an adult. You can legally sign a lease, enlist in the army, etc...

I think younger than that is not feasible, and if you can be sent off to fight in a war, you should at least have the right to vote for who should represent you.

Don't overestimate the effect the movie is going to have on the election. The people that are going to see it are not generally going to be conservatives that come out with some new revelation. The people that hate Bush already will have their viewpoints confirmed, but the Bush supporters aren't going to see it. The undecided probably can't decide what movie to go see anyway.

Most 16 year olds today are definately not mature enough or smart enough to vote. Honestly, how many 16 year olds do you know that follow politics and would be smart enough to vote? True, some might be, but most of them are not.

So I think the voting age is fine how it is.

Riley

Pat, even though I am 18, I always wanted to vote. I in most of my teenage years have been interested in politics. Most kids are not. Most kids are too immature to have an opinion in politics, and that is why (imo) that the voting age is 18. I really don't think the legal age to vote should be changed for that reason. But you can still make an effort in who you think should win. There are lots of things the underaged can do in their community to voice their opinion. I you would like the sites, just PM me.

I voted as everyone else did & said that it was fine the way it is. I don't think a lot of 16 year olds are mature enough or would care enough to vote yet. It's just my opinion but I didn't start watching the news until like I was a Senior in high school or Freshman in college. I just didn't care & wasn't interested in it.

The fact is is that MOST Americans over the age of 18 aren't smart enough to vote!

I am 16, and I have absolutely no desire to vote. In fact, none of my friends do either. I think you are the first person my age Pat (that I know of) who feels that the voting age should be brought down to 16. But before you go out and voice your opinions, hear me out:

Do you know why the voting age was brought down from 21 to 18? I'm not a history major, but I believe it was because 18 year-olds who were being drafted to serve and die in Vietnam felt that they should be able to vote for the leader of the country that they were fighting for.
So you want to make the voting age 16? Don't you think that some politicians might think, "Hey, if they are old enough to vote for the leader of this country, aren't they old enough to fight for it?"?
That is what scares me, even though it probably won't happen, along with changing the age.

The "youth" vote seems to be very important these days. I heard P Diddy is going to start a show on MTV that tries to encourage young people to vote. Yet these plans don't seem to be working. I'm not sure if it's an issue of immaturity (though it is often the case), but I think a lot of people my age (myself included) really don't care.
I was watching Dennis Miller's show the other week, and he mentioned that Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond preformed at a benefit for John Kerry. Then he sarcastically remarked, "Well they've got the youth vote!"

Our legal voting age is the same here, 18. My first general election I was legally able to vote in I turned it down. I didn't give a fuck, it was all the same shit to me. Now, a few years on I relise how powerful and important politics is and I make my vote count. The fact is, now that I look back, I think if I did vote when I was 18/19 I still think it would be an immature vote. Kids think they know everything at that age - they don't know anything.

"It's what you learn after you know everything that counts." - Unknown.

Teens Showing More Interest in Voting
By MARTHA IRVINE, AP

VERONA, Wis. (July 4) - They've gotten pregnant less often than teens of recent decades, are less likely to smoke or do illegal drugs, and have an interest in volunteering and public service. Now signs are cropping up that the nation's youngest young adults are bucking another trend: They're taking an interest in voting.

''It's important to us. What happens in this election is going to affect our generation,'' says 18-year-old Katie Brew, who filled out a registration form shortly before graduating from Verona High School, just outside Madison.

About to head to the University of Nebraska for her freshman year, Brew is most worried about the potential for a draft. Others say the threat of terrorism and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have motivated them to get involved.

''We've been through things like 9-11 and the war on Iraq - all that junk. So we want to have a say,'' says 18-year-old Mia Georgeson, another newly registered voter from Verona High who's about to join the National Guard Army band as a percussionist.

Recent surveys of youth - most often college students - have provided conflicting data about the level of interest in the upcoming presidential election.

Still, several experts who track youth movements believe change is afoot, particularly among ''millennials,'' young adults born after 1981 who are coming of age in the new millennium. Now no older than 22, they represent millions of potential new voters.

Michael Wood, vice president of Teenage Research Unlimited, says the election has been coming up frequently - and spontaneously - during his talks with young people who serve as advisers for the Illinois-based market research company.

''I haven't seen this much interest since 1992,'' Wood says, referring to the first presidential election Bill Clinton won. It was the only presidential race since 1972, when the voting age was dropped to 18, in which turnout among the youngest voters topped 50 percent.

He agrees that the war in Iraq - and how it will affect their lives - is causing many teens to take notice. He also credits the many voting campaigns that target young people, including one spearheaded by MTV.

Still others say teachers have helped inspired them.

That was the case for Dan Blessing, a recent high school graduate in Philadelphia who took action after a teacher explained how young people have been increasingly less likely to vote.

''It really did hit me then,'' says Blessing, who registered via an education program called Student Voices. He and fellow students at the High School for Creative and Performing Arts then had a pizza party to persuade their peers to do the same.

In Wisconsin alone, the nonpartisan New Voters Project has already registered more than 8,000 teens, including Brew, Georgeson and dozens of other graduating seniors at Verona High School.

Caught during their final assembly, they heard an enthusiastic pitch from 23-year-old Jessy Tolkan, the New Voters Project's Wisconsin coordinator.

''Before you go off into the world as high school graduates, you can do one really critical, important thing - you can register to vote!'' Tolkan shouted.

The suggestion drew just a single ''Woo!'' from the back of the auditorium - hardly a rousing response.

But in a matter of minutes, nearly half of the 310 Verona seniors registered and filled out cards that say ''YES! I pledge to vote on Nov. 2, 2004.'' They also provided e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers so they could be reminded to vote this fall.

Several other students said they'd already registered.

''It's all part of a rising political tide,'' says Scott Beale, a 28-year-old who interviewed hundreds of young people for his book ''Millennial Manifesto,'' a look at youth interest in politics, activism and voting.

A graduate student studying public administration at the University of Delaware, Beale points to youth-driven movements aimed at lowering the voting age in several states.

He also notes that more young people are running for public office. They include 26-year-old Samara Barend, a former campaign aide to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who is running for Congress in New York.

But others wonder if all the talk about voting will really equate to votes.

''I'm, at once, hopeful and skeptical,'' says Ganesh Sitaraman, a 21-year-old Harvard University graduate who co-wrote the book ''Invisible Citizens: Youth Politics After September 11'' and worries that the many young people who are registering won't actually vote.

Bill Strauss, a generational expert who coined the term ''millennial,'' believes there will be pockets of increased participation in this election - but that the full effect of the youngest generation's political influence won't be felt until 2012, when they'll be pushing 30 and more invested in the economy.

Some young people are clearly having trouble getting motivated - among them Jake Gleason, a Verona student who didn't register to vote, even when the form and a pen were handed to him.

''Honestly, I'm just too lazy to fill it out,'' the 18-year-old said after the assembly. ''I got halfway through and I just didn't feel like finishing it.''

Source: AOL News

Posted by Patrick: These must be the type of people who were at the theatre with you:

The theatre was sold out. It was teenagers, parents, and senior citizens. -Pat

Pat I think you brought up a really interesting topic. I've always thought that 16 year-olds should be able to graduate from high school....

About voting, I'm not sure they are mature enough at 16. I know I definitely wasn't knowledgeable enough at the time. Young people tend to be more idealistic..... I think it was good that they lowered it to age 18 during Vietnam,.... but.... 16 might be a little too young.

Most of the people (not all, but most) who went to see it were already voting for Kerry anyways, so that's why the impact will be marginal, and not as great as you think. It's not like Moore is giving us revelations, he's simply stating his opinion to those who choose to listen, who are people not likely to vote for Bush in the first place.