Who Should (and shouldn't) get to vote?

The example of the eleven-year-old and the thirty-five-year-old was a great point to back up Chris's argument, but how often does it happen that a pre-teen knows a great amount about politics beyond what their parents tell them? This child quite possibly could have been coached to say what she said (or not?), and it is more likely than not that she had outside or advanced education on the subject that other students would not have had access to. I definitely think that it's possible for a child to be independent enough to learn about politics and form their own opinions, but it just doesn't happen enough to allow all of them to vote.

However, I do realize that some American adults can be even less knowledgeable about government. Many people in the United States couldn't even pass the INS test. I'm not sure how effective passing a test in order to vote would be. And who would decide what "basic knowledge of government" would be? A good amount of the voting population has very little knowledge (or none at all) about the political process, and creating a test to eliminate ignorant voters would skew the results (and tremendously reduce the amount of voters) of an election. Politically ignorant people are just another demographic of this country--you can't deny them a fundamental American right.

If this were a perfect world, then everyone who wanted to vote would be educated enough to make an intelligent decision, and all minors would understand politics. Politicians would actually explain the issues they plan to deal with, instead talking in circles (for fear of losing a voting population). Voters would then know the reasons why they vote (or not vote) for certain candidates, instead of simply voting on superficial ideals. But this is not a perfect world, nor a perfect system, so unless circumstances can change greatly, lowering the voting age (or abolishing it) could quite possibly make things worse. Since I am not eighteen until December, I will be unable to vote in this election. I have decided that I am glad that I cannot vote, because I feel that I am not yet knowledgeable enough about politics to make the right decision for myself. I know that I need to be further educated on government (hence next semester's class) and do more research on politics specifically. This is not to say that the voting age as of now is perfect, but I feel that many teenagers are like me and do not fully understand politics. Some don't even care about it. Even though I am sure that there are some teens that are enthusiastic about government, many still have to reach a certain level of maturity before they can make the decision to vote.