Proposal to Let 14-Year-Olds Vote Clears First Legislative Hurdle (This is NOT a joke!)

Sacramento Union ^ | 5/04/2004 | SACUNION.COM STAFF WRITER

[tkathy]

IMHO this is a thinly veiled attempt to lower the age of sexual consent. The pervs are after our teeny boppers.

[sharktrager]

Reverse those and, yeah I remember it.

"It's just Tiger's Milk"

[So Cal Rocket]

Don't forget the "Roe Effect". Liberals have either aborted their children, or raise fewer ones than do Conservatives, thus weeding out Liberal thought within family households. That's the theory anyway.

Hmmmm... maybe we can pass legislation to give aborted babies the right to vote. Since they won't be physically able to vote, we'll have to appoint a proxy for them to vote in their best interest. Since voting for Pro-Life Candidates would be in their best interest, you may be on to something.

[TheDon]

This is part of Vasconcellos', and his ilk's, plan to get the age of consent dropped. NAMBA and all that.

[Anomaly in Illinois]

omg this is crazy! (My 14 year old would vote conservative *G*)

[TheDon]

Agreed.

[NilesJo]

Time for a new rallying cry:"No representation without taxation!"

I think this law, if passed, would last only as long as it took adult voters to get a proposal on the ballot to extinguish it. Fortunately, California voters actually have more common sense than the liberal idiots they elect into the legislature -- Proposition 13 proved that.

[Still Thinking]

Well, I guess they've finally discovered their last untapped base of natural constituents. If they're going to be that blatantly partisan maybe the Pubbies could send up a law allowing only registered Pubbies to vote!

[SpaceBar]

Britney Spears for president.

[olde north church]

little greg brady and little will robinson were in the flick.
Hal Holbrook was quite good as the Senator who negotiated the whole deal.

[Still Thinking]

Plus I think kids are naturally more liberal than their elders in most cases. Remember "If you aren't a liberal at 18, you have no heart; if you aren't a conservative by 25, you have no brain"!

[K1avg]

As a fifteen-year-old high schooler, I can tell you how utterly immature some of these folks are. This is the Dems trolling for several million more votes they know they can get. This is truly BS, but, unfortunately, anything goes in the People's Republic of California. Hopefully Ahnauld will shoot it down if it gets too far.

Michael, we need a J/D ping all over this thing.

[xp38]

Fetuses should be given the vote and simply be default votes against pro choice candidates.

[ErnBatavia]

The day that a 14 year old can decide how much tax I should pay will be the day I leave this country.

And you just know that the teacher/brainwashers will recuse themselves from discussing school bond issues....won't they?

[CaptainK]

My best friend had a crush on James Dean wannabe Christopher Jones so I was forced to endure the grooviness.
The movie was too cheesy for words.

[Sender]

Wow, that's the best idea I've heard all day! VOTES FOR FETUSES (or is it FETII?) They'd all vote Republican for sure.

Hmmm, getting the ballots back might be difficult.

[auntdot]

The twenty-sixth amendment to our Constitution states:

"Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of age.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

Am not sure there is anything in the Constitution, after the adoption of that amendment, that would prevent a state from lowering the voting age.

There is also the question of alloting a proportional vote dependent upon age, but I cannot find a Constitutional bar to it.

But heck, that is only me reading the Constitution.

Is this all legal? Heck if I know?

But was the Constitution written, or amended, to allow children to run our government?

Clearly this idea is insane.

Are there any responsible people in California?

[xp38]

Because of physical difficulties the number of pre born is calculated from say doctors records and are automatically tallied for pro life candidates.

[Sender]

I think it is a safe assumption that fetuses are pro-life.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Actually I believe universal suffrage threatens all incentive to work hard. Sooner or later, the have-nots will vote themselves the property of the haves. If you do not own anything, of course you don't mind raising taxes on those who do. I believe it ultimately dooms every society to income distribution when everyone is allowed the vote.