And that’s now 27 runs of #16tovote on the 16th! And going strong!
Being the April edition, the event occurred right at tax time, when we are reminded that you don’t have to be old enough to vote to pay taxes! Yet shouldn’t taxpayers get a vote? A say in the money they are paying into the system? Alas, the under-18 taxpayers are still voiceless. And why is that? What is there to fear about teen suffrage? And if people are so certain teens as a whole don’t care aboout voting, what’s the point in legally preventing them from doing so?
These are some of the things pondered about the voting age, and we ponder them again and again, encouraging others to ponder them as well. And some day, enough people will ponder them and realize there’s no good reason to keep the voting age way up at 18, and change will happen. We’ll make it happen!
Next #16tovote on the 16th is, of course, Wednesday, May 16, but for now… the recap!
youthrights And it’s time again for… #16tovote on the 16th! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to
Lower the Voting Age!!! http://bit.ly/mPxJfZ
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sciville My polling place is a school, where kids were shoved out of the way so adults
could vote but they couldn’t. How rude! #16tovote
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote because if young people could vote, then young people would have a say in society, and if young people had a say in society…
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote @Amy33Amy33 and if young people had a say in society then they would want to change society
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youthrights Disempowerment leads to hopelessness, a dangerous thing for anyone. Enfranchisement would definitely help youth out of that! #16tovote
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote @Amy33Amy33 and if they wanted to change society, they would want a bigger say in society…
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote @Amy33Amy33 and if they had a say in society then they would be insulted by censorship
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote @Amy33Amy33 and if they were insulted by censorship they would try to outlaw the various entertainment censorship boards
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FoxfireBurns #16tovote http://t.co/fjVAY1Od
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote @Amy33Amy33 and if they outlawed the censorship boards…
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote @Amy33Amy33 then Hollywood would proceed to rewrite all the movies that sucked because of censorship, including the #hungergames
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FoxfireBurns #16tovote It’s time to make increased democracy a reality in America. Votes for Youth
http://www.youthrights.org/2012/04/05/nyra-launches-votes-for-youth-campaign/
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youthrights Teens still carry many responsibilities and are socially involved. Not having voting rights is only hurting them! #16tovote
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youthrightsmn @ChoEmee @Amy33Amy33 It’s #16tovote !!!
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youthrightsmn #16tovote Because voting is a lot less dangerous than driving
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sciville Last week, we had to vote for school board members. I’m not a student! I don’t know! But the students who do know can’t vote! #16tovote
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youthrightsmn #16tovote Because a lot of teenagers have jobs, and a lot of teenagers can’t vote, that’s a lot of taxation without representation
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote cause when I walk thru the hallways I hear people talk about who they would vote for, and Mickey Mouse isn’t in those discussions
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote cause Social Studies class needs less talking and more doing
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youthrights Youth had no vote in the officials who set so many restrictions on them. This makes such laws (even more) inherently unjust! #16tovote
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arclights When should you start voting: When you have roots in your community, or when you just landed somewhere new for college? #16tovote #0tovote
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arclights No taxation without representation. Either abolish the voting age, or exempt minors from all taxes. #0tovote #16tovote 2start
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arclights Irony: Being tried as an adult for underage voting. #16tovote
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Amy33Amy33 #itsfunnyhow Ppl in Brazil can vote at 16, but ppl in America can’t, and ppl in America can drive at 16 and ppl in Brazil can’t. #16tovote
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sciville No one cares if a 30-year-old votes the same as parent. But then there’s “can’t let teens vote, they’ll vote like their PARENTS!” #16tovote
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Amy33Amy33 #thingspeopledothatgetonmynerves is when people tell me that Im too young to vote and then I need to tell them how to use twitter #16tovote
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sciville And why care if a teen votes the same way as a parent? Oh no, someone voted the same as someone else! Run for the hills! #16tovote
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote the entire system of democracy is based on voting the same as someone else (parents),if everyone voted different it wouldn’t work
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote And what if you have 4 parents, mom, dad, stepmom, stepdad, and one votes democrat, one votes republican, one liberal, one green?
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Amy33Amy33 #16tovote We shouldn’t let the teens vote! They’ll all vote democrat!; well then We shouldn’t let the old vote! They’ll all vote republican!
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youthrights Off to a good start! Check out our Voting Age page for more info on the cause: http://www.youthrights.org/issues/voting-age/ #16tovote
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rsl_uk “@youthrightsmn: #16tovote Alot teenagers have jobs and can’t vote, that’s a lot of taxation without representation” RSL couldn’t agree more
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rsl_uk What are your thoughts on #16tovote
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youthrights Good morning! Another lovely #16tovote on the 16th! Another day to demand votes for youth! 🙂
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Sethkeel Lower the voting age! #16tovote
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ErikBraghirol Because there is no such thing as too much democracy #16tovote.
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Sethkeel RT @auwbE: What happened to no taxation without representation? Last time I checked minors are not exempt from paying taxes. #16tovote
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youthrights What good is done by keeping the youngest population voiceless while assuming their voice would be dangerous? #16tovote
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youthrights 16-year-olds can’t vote but can be charged as adults. Yet if it were the other way around, only then would people call it unfair! #16tovote
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youthrights It’s telling when being tough with young people is less offensive than being nice and truly listening to and including them! #16tovote
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ErikBraghirol Because civics is best learned hands on #16tovote.
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youthrights It’s pretty rotten to tell our young people “if we listen to you on this,
society will collapse!” #16tovote
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righteouswind Reading youth rights theory taught me that abolishing the voting age isn’t only feasible, it’s mandatory for a just society. #16tovote
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righteouswind Disenfranchisement was tyrannical for women, blacks, the lower classes, and colonists. It’s just as tyrannical for minors. #16tovote
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FoxfireBurns #16tovote We need Votes for Youth to increase democracy, as explained in this web video of radio interview -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYgH_4EKFrY
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righteouswind The cruelty and irrationality of minority status and compulsory schooling would be more visible were its victims enfranchised. #16tovote
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righteouswind Laws putting minor women’s reproductive rights to a vote aren’t really democratic when those young women can’t cast ballots. #16tovote
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righteouswind It’s hard for young people to get excited about politics when they have no voice. #16tovote
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righteouswind Lots of people with severe cognitive impairments can vote (and rightly so) but not even the brightest minors can. #16tovote
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righteouswind It’s not a coincidence that America’s most oppressed class of mainstream individuals are also disenfranchised. #16tovote
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righteouswind Guardianship and disenfranchisement haven’t worked out that well for the women of Saudi Arabia either. #16tovote
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youthrights “I am 16. I have a job and pay taxes.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7XtMb6ig38 Our voting age ad from 2008! 🙂 #16tovote
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righteouswind Perhaps young people’s economic needs wouldn’t be shortchanged were they someone’s voting constituency. #16tovote
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righteouswindUntil youth can vote, youth rights supporters have to vote with them in mind. Learn where your officials stand on youth rights! #16tovote
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righteouswind Youth are an easy scapegoat for politicians partially because they aren’t casting ballots. #16tovote
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righteouswind If “abolishing the voting age” sounds too radical at first, read John Holt and Richard Farson and then revisit your views. #16tovote
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righteouswind Every day in school children are expected to do and understand things much more difficult than voting. #16tovote
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righteouswind Perhaps we wouldn’t worry about children parroting their parents’ votes if they were allowed to interact with more adults. #16tovote
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righteouswind Parents cannot be proxy voters for children when they so often vote
against their rights and interests. #16tovote
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youthrights Convenient that young people’s hard-earned tax dollars are still sought
after yet their right to vote is denied! #16tovote
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righteouswind As a student of lady history, I am sensitive to all of the overt and subtle meanings and consequences of disenfranchisement. #16tovote
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righteouswind Richard Farson wrote that although there may be challenges ahead, liberating children is the only way to ensure justice for them. #16tovote
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youthrights Want a quick intro to the lower voting age issue?
http://www.youthrights.org/2012/02/13/yr101-4/ Youth Rights 101, Part 4: The Right to Vote #16tovote
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righteouswind I have lots of friends under eighteen whose sophistication in understanding politics matches anyone! #16tovote
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righteouswind Youth liberation is incomplete without the franchise for all. #16tovote
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Sethkeel Youth have valid opinions and thoughts. Policies are being made that affect us and we have no say. Lower the voting age! #16tovote
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youthrights When it is only adults who have a vote and say in ever-more-restrictive youth policy, such policy is unjust and exploitative. #16tovote
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youthrights The idea that youth pay taxes but can’t vote falls into the idea that youth exist to be subservient to adults. This MUST change! #16tovote
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Rylee_Ann The charter of rights is the rights of all citizens of canada, then why does it troll everyone and go “lol no, voting age is 18.”? #16tovote
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youthrights Here’s our amazing President @UsielX on free speech and voting rights! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVFWwGyPAX4 🙂 #16tovote
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Jordan_Carr 16 year olds aren’t intelligent enough to vote. They are oblivious to problems in this world. #StupidStereotypes #16ToVote
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youthrights Lower voting age is recognition that young and old are equally part of society, that such division of electoral power is wrong. #16tovote
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youthrights Lowering voting age to 16 is NOT the end goal! It’s one of many important first steps toward greater rights and freedom for youth! #16tovote
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youthrights If you felt certain that teens would mostly vote the same way as you, is it safe to assume you’d be all for lower voting age? 😉 #16tovote
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Mbicesk8r The voting age is too high for this generation. It needs to change #16tovote
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FoxfireBurns Watch Michael Moore’s statement supporting Votes for Youth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_jstEWciJU Add your support: http://www.youthrights.org/2012/04/05/nyra-launches-votes-for-youth-campaign/ #16tovote @MMFlint
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youthrights #16tovote on the 16th is going great! Once again, here’s Top 10 Reasons to
Lower the Voting Age!!! http://www.youthrights.org/issues/voting-age/top-ten-reasons-to-lower-the-voting-age/
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youthrights Are you Tweeting? NYRA’s #16toVote action is blowing up the Twitterverse today! Go check it out…. http://fb.me/HjyKJbVT
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CooperAdkins #16tovote
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TristanHundley I want to be able to vote and decide my future, I work and pay taxes so I should be able to decide where that goes. #16tovote
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youthrights No one’s voting rights should be denied just because their elders would feel personally offended by sharing the franchise! #16tovote
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youthrights When adult voters want school boards to enact oppressive school policies, the disenfranchised students are stuck with it! #16tovote
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ambersweettt #16tovote!! Support youth rights!
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youthrights “A law can only be imposed fairly on those who had some say in shaping that law.” From “The Disenfranchised”: http://proyouthpages.com/voting.html #16tovote
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youthrights If you want to protect youth, you have to allow youth to protect themselves, such as at the ballot box! #16tovote
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HenryLahman @Jordan_Carr So are blacks and so are women -according to some people at the time… Hell there are some real stupid adults too… #16tovote
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youthrights Our former exec director @kpalicz refutes Ann Coulter’s call for higher
voting age and calls for lower one! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-koroknaypalicz/ann-coulters-ageism-will-_b_784895.html
#16tovote
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youthrights The 26th Amendment forbids raising the voting age from 18. It does not forbid lowering it! 🙂 #16tovote
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youthrights Once again, our voting age TV ad by @nyrasefl! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7XtMb6ig38 🙂 #16tovote
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sciville If youth are so “precious”, why can’t they vote? Or are they only “precious” as long as you can objectify them? Ah, I see. #16tovote
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SchoolSurvival RT @youthrights: If you want to protect youth, you have to allow youth to protect themselves, such as at the ballot box! #16tovote
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1967WEDway If young people really do not care about voting, then why do we need laws preventing them from doing so? #16tovote
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1967WEDway #16tovote so that politicians will stop scapegoating young people and hear their concerns just like any other group of citizens!
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youthrights Once again, Youth Rights 101, Part 4: The Right to Vote! http://www.youthrights.org/2012/02/13/yr101-4/ A quick intro! 🙂 #16tovote
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1967WEDway #16tovote because every night, young people are arrested just for being under 18 due to curfew laws they had no say in.
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1967WEDway Our country was founded on the idea of no taxation without representation, yet this is exactly what we subject young people to. #16tovote
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sciville I wonder if someone who’s so terrified at the idea of a 16-year-old voting… should really be voting. 😛 #16tovote
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1967WEDway Some people claim that youth aren’t politically informed enough to vote, but what about the millions of uninformed adult voters? #16tovote
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1967WEDway Some people worry about parents bribing their kids if we let young people vote, but it’s already illegal to bribe voters! #16tovote
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youthrights You know what the voting age is in Austria? Sixteen! #16tovote
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1967WEDway When our country was founded, voting was restricted to white, landowning men
aged 21 and older. Why stop chipping away at it now? #16tovote
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pacifist22 I’ll think of something catchy to say later. #16tovote
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1967WEDway Countries around the world are now making voting accessible to more of their citizens. Let’s have the U.S. get onboard this trend! #16tovote
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youthrights How will teens vote once they have the right? That’s easy. However each individual teen voter wants! 🙂 #16tovote
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1967WEDway #16tovote because what exactly are you worried is going to happen if young people receive their right to vote?
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pacifist22 If young people are the future, they should be able to decide it as well #16tovote
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youthrights If you’re worried about uninformed young voters, then take away the “uninformed” part, not the “voter” part! 😉 #16tovote
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1967WEDway #16tovote because young people are not the future, they are here RIGHT NOW and they have concerns that must be heard TODAY!
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youthrights Some may be wondering… why are we saying 16? Here’s an answer: http://www.youthrights.org/2011/10/14/why-sixteen/ #16tovote
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1967WEDway #16tovote because any citizen who is required to obey the law must also have a say in who makes the law!
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youthrights Primaries have been going past couple months. In 19 states, 17-year-olds are/were allowed to vote in those primaries. 🙂 #16tovote
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youthrights Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_age#United_States to see which states allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries! #16tovote
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1967WEDway #16tovote because young people deserve a say in the policies passed by government that directly affect them!
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youthrights Worried teens would vote against how you’d vote? So will plenty of adults! #16tovote
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youthrights Would teens vote the same way as you? Well, then what’s the problem? 😉 #16tovote
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youthrights Would teens not really vote at all? Then nothing would really change, now would it? 😉 #16tovote
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youthrights Would teens vote for some obscure write-in? Unless lots of adults are too, write-in has no chance. #16tovote
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youthrights Would teens do all of the above? Yes, because they are different people with different views, but all of them need voting rights! #16tovote
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tKochers Sorry guys, I definitely just blasted you with like 20 retweets…Then again, this is important. Its time to lower the voting age #16tovote
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youthrights If students could vote for their own school board officials, school would be a lot less oppressive. Maybe even educational! 😉 #16tovote
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1967WEDway #16tovote because the only people not allowed to vote in school board elections are also the only people who are forced to attend school.
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1967WEDway If young people really did vote for some obscure candidate, then wouldn’t they just be outvoted by the millions of other voters? #16tovote
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youthrights Once again, here’s President @UsielX at SCOTUS on free speech and the voting age: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVFWwGyPAX4 #16tovote
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youthrights Teens’ tax dollars are used by officials they couldn’t vote for to enact
ageist legislation restricting their rights. #16tovote
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teh_maxh #!ˆTOVOTE. It’s like #16tovote but more shouty.
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youthrights Wondering what’s going on? Today’s #16tovote on the 16th, our monthly event for tweeting a lot about lowering the voting age! 🙂
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youthrights Two and a half hours to go for this #16tovote on the 16th and it’s going GREAT! Thanks everyone! Let’s keep it going! 😀
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youthrights In 19 states, it is still legal for students to be paddled at school. Students can’t vote against those who let it remain legal. #16tovote
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youthrights You know what the voting age is in Brazil? Sixteen! 🙂 #16tovote
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youthrights There must be compelling state interest to withhold voting rights. Vague assertions of teen immaturity don’t count. #16tovote
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youthrights Two hours to go! Once again, former ED @kpalicz rebutting Ann Coulter’s call to raise voting age! http://huff.to/ijN8nT #16tovote
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youthrights You know what the voting age is in Glarus, Switzerland? Sixteen! 🙂 #16tovote
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youthrights It’s 11pm. A curfew may now be in effect, enacted by those you couldn’t vote for, making it illegal for you to leave your house. #16tovote
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youthrights Youth are harmed when society assumes they’re incapable of looking out for themselves. A ballot is their power and protection. #16tovote
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youthrights Lower voting age is to enable youth to defend their interests, rather than hoping silently in vain for adults to do so for them. #16tovote
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youthrights Maybe instead of excluding youth and assuming they are incapable, try including them and seeing how capable they really are. #16tovote
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sciville Aftermath of lower voting age? If you’re a teen, congrats, you can vote! If you’re an adult, no change. So what’s the problem? #16tovote
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youthrights Lowering the voting age means enabling youth to break out of a sort of state-mandated disempowerment. #16tovote
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youthrights How many more restrictions and other instances of political exploitation must youth endure without having a say in any of it? #16tovote
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youthrights Youth are individual human beings, not merely their parents’ children or teachers’ students, who need their individual votes. #16tovote
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youthrights Young workers pay many billions in income taxes, but when it comes to voting rights, suddenly they’re “immature”. #16tovote
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youthrights The young aren’t meant to be inferior or subservient to their elders. So that’s why, every month, we gather here and call for #16tovote.
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youthrights Young or old, we all contribute to society, and it’s about time the young are recognized for that, with the long awaited ballot. #16tovote
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youthrights And… that does it for this 27th run of #16tovote on the 16th! Thanks so much, everyone!!! Timeline-clogging credits soon. 🙂
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youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @sciville @FoxfireBurns @Amy33Amy33
@arclights @rsl_uk @Sethkeel @chrisbartley5 @youthrightsmn @evilllamas
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @OnBradstreet @ErikBraghirol @auwbE
@righteouswind @silverfang1977 @Rylee_Ann @Jordan_Carr @Mbicesk8r
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @TristanHundley @CooperAdkins
@youthcabinetW @peacenrainbows @nickj47 @SpokenxWords @GaryTrowsdale @oinonio
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @KyleeGrady @CutieBunch815 @ambersweettt
@missmarymax @TheseEnds @underbellie @1967WEDway @SchoolSurvival
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @Elohi_Unitsi @taradinoc @JTeen
@geoffreyfoster @WIMPS @HenryLahman and anyone I missed! 🙂
youthrights And we do it again Wednesday, May 16, another #16tovote on the 16th! You
all are awesome! Goodnight, everybody! 😀
youthrights To learn more about lowering the voting age, check out our page:
http://www.youthrights.org/youth-rights/voting-age/ #16tovote
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Until next time!
Dammit Kat, you missed one.