It Takes a Village . . . But Let the Teenagers Vote

In their article Give Parents the Vote, Kleinfeld and Sachs argue that we ought to give parents extra votes to cast by proxy on behalf of their minor children. In this response, I argue that their proposal misconceives the nature of voting itself. Unlike a child’s personal medical or financial decisions, which we entrust to those most responsible for a child’s care, voting is a collective act by which a political community makes collective choices. Each of us is obligated to cast our vote in the way we think best for the whole community.

And each voter—whether a parent or a nonparent—is morally and constitutionally entitled to an equal vote. At the same time, it is true that those under age 18 are often not especially well represented in our current system. Empirical evidence suggests that high school students are as able to vote as young adults. So rather than giving extra votes to their parents, I argue that we ought to let teenagers vote.