Teenagers in Belgium must vote in upcoming European elections, the country’s constitutional court has ruled - ten days before the deadline to register to vote.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/J7L6B

  • @reddig33
    link
    2
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    My feeling is if you’re judged old enough to vote, you’re old enough to drink, and you’re old enough to join the armed services, and be tried as an adult. If you’re not adult enough to do one of these things, why are you old enough to do the other(s)?

    You’re welcome to have all the political opinions you want at any age, but voting is something that should be taken with as much seriousness as the other items on that list.

    • @bbuez
      link
      1110 months ago

      And yet the US’s (typical) drinking age is 21, opposed to voting at 18, and driving at 16. Driving likely because its necessary for any sort of mobility, and drinking because we’ve deemed that some adults are too young to drink, but are old enough to own a firearm and be recruited to the military. Its arbitrary

      • @reddig33
        link
        410 months ago

        True. And I think all of these things should be set to the same age limit in the US.

    • Uranium3006
      link
      fedilink
      210 months ago

      It’s because we used to draft 18 year olds to fight in the Vietnam war and they couldn’t vote until 21 in many States at the time

    • @peg
      link
      010 months ago

      If voting needs to be taken so seriously surely you should need a certain level of education before you can vote. For instance, only people with a humanities degree.