Following the Brexit referendum, in which Britain voted to leave the European Union, a chart has been published showing that voters from age 44 down voted to remain in the EU. Older voters, on the other hand, voted to leave. The issue here is that senior voters won’t live to see the repercussions of their vote, whereas the younger voters, who mostly voted to remain in the EU, are stuck with a future they never wanted.
These results have led some people to wonder if there should be a maximum voting age; that is, should citizens over a certain age lose their privilege to vote?
Although some view it as a violation of rights, others insist that there are some issues that older voters won’t live to see the results of, so they should have no say. The two biggest issues I could foresee are picking an exact age, and dealing with the legality of essentially stripping seniors of their civil rights.
From my point of view, although a maximum voting age may seem like a good idea at first, the specifics aren’t so black and white. At what age would someone be “too old” to vote? Would it vary as to what was being voted on? The general consensus seems to be that someone who is retired is “too old,” but what about early retirement? If someone doesn’t work at all, should they never be allowed to vote? At that point, you’re too close to regressing to the days where only rich, white, college educated men could vote.
The other issue is that, looked at simply, preventing a large group from voting is considered fraud. Many millennials think that seniors should be prevented from voting because they’re out of touch with current times, but this is preventing them from voting based solely on the possible outcome.
