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Vt. weighs letting 17-year-olds vote



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The Associated Press - Published: March 14, 2009

MONTPELIER — The state of Vermont is in the process of amending its constitution to allow some 17-year-olds to vote.

An amendment that would let those who turn 18 by Election Day in November to vote in primary elections before that was approved by lawmakers last year and is headed for a second vote. Under the constitution, amendments to the constitution must be approved by two different legislatures and at a public referendum.

If the early-voting amendment is approved again this session, a referendum would be held in November 2010.

State Sen. Jeanette White says the idea behind the measure is to get young people voting early.







READER COMMENTS


All fine & good to give well-educated, well-prepared, politically/socially aware & involved 18 year olds the right & responsibility to vote. However the fact is most 18 year olds do not read newspapers,do not comb the internet for independent, non-corporate news sources & therefore are largely uninformed/misinformed. They are a potential electorate of dangerously ill-prepared young adults.
-- Posted by Peggy Sapphire on Sun, Mar 15, 2009, 10:03 am EST

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If the objective is to get young people voting early, why not just register them at birth, allow their parents to vote as their proxies until first grade, and then just allow cell phone text voting after that?

How do people like Jeanette White, who apparently possesses absolutely no common sense nor sound judgment, get elected to the Vermont legislature?

This is more than an embarrasment, this is the destruction of our democratic republic in the making!
-- Posted by Bill O. Rights on Sat, Mar 14, 2009, 11:59 pm EST

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They want 17 year olds voting because they are young, foolish and naive and can be easily talked into a lot of foolish things. A politician's dream. One more thing for the country to laugh at Vermont about.
-- Posted by Angel None on Sat, Mar 14, 2009, 2:59 pm EST

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Why would anyone want a 17 year old voting? they are young foolish and naive, and whoever came up with this idea should be smacked upside the head. Raise the voting age to 21, where they might actually take a look at a newspaper or turn on the news channel. Everything should be raised to 21, driving age, voting age, even the age to serve in the military.
-- Posted by None None on Sat, Mar 14, 2009, 10:49 am EST

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