Class persuasive writing - voting age

Class persuasive writing - voting age

The Grade 4/5 students tried their own piece of persuasive writing on Monday.

We read through all the essays and picked out strong words and ideas to create a class piece.

This writing is an example of how we can organize our writing so it is clear, makes sense and presents a strong set of arguments.

We have a thesis - opinion at the start.

Then we have three arguments, each one in a paragraph with an example or evidence to back up our ideas. Finally we have a conclusion - to sum up what we have said.

SHOULD THE VOTING AGE BE LOWERED TO THIRTEEN ?

In my opinion the voting age should not be lowered to thirteen. I think this is a horrible idea.

The first reason the voting age should not be lowered is because votes may be manipulated. This is not fair for the children and not helping achieve a fair result.

During elections some people get very defensive about the party they are in favor of. They may try to get as many people as possible on their side. Children could be forced to vote for them by people that are older than them. They may be bribed to vote for a candidate or punished if they vote for another candidate. Children are easy targets because they are smaller, have less power and are not very strong.

Another reason why the voting age should not be lowered is that children from the age of thirteen are too young to understand important information about political parties and policies. Children often do not read the newspaper or watch the news. They may not understand the issues involved and who will be the right leader for the country. They might be swayed by what a person looks like or sounds like. They may chose someone that is richer. They may waste their vote because they are not informed.

My third and final argument as to why the voting age should not be lowered to children aged thirteen is because voting is going to become complicated. There will be thousands, maybe even millions more people voting. The queues will be crammed with people. It also takes a lot of time for staff to process all the votes and tally up the results. The election will become time consuming and expensive. We will have to wait longer for the result which could also lead to anger and dissatisfaction.

In conclusion I believe that the vote should not be lowered to thirteen. Maybe it could be lowered a bit but thirteen is too young. Thirteen year olds are still children. They can be easily controlled by adults, often do not understand the policies of the different political parties and it will make the election a long, complicated process.