We’ve completed the first #16tovote on the 16th of 2011! It was the second time the event landed on a Sunday, the third time on a weekend. Like always, youth rights supporters descended upon Twitter and tweeted a lot about why the voting age must be lowered, using the #16tovote hashtag. This twelfth run of the event saw 56 participants, the highest participation yet, surpassing the 52 who participated last March. In previous runs of the event, any opponents to lowering the voting age have been mostly non-existent, except for a few notable exceptions. This time, there were a few more, as several supporters found themselves making the usual #16tovote tweets as well as debating with some of their other Twitter friends about lowering the voting age. It’s alright, since the conversation is an important one, one this event is meant to spark to begin with! And I want to thank you all who have participated and have made this event what it has been, have made it last this long, to its twelfth run, and to the next run, on Wednesday, February 16, which will mark the one year anniversary of #16tovote on the 16th!
As always, be sure you are following NYRA on Twitter!
And as usual, here’s the recap!
youthrights Alright, time for 2011’s first… #16tovote on the 16th!!! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age!!! http://bit.ly/cavxOT
youthrights It’s new year now, yet still millions of innocent tax-paying working Americans are denied a voice in society. #16tovote
EIFY We are supposed to believe that all of adult’s opinions, no matter how absurd, must be respected. #16tovote
youthrights Officials are more interested in being tough on teens than protecting them from abuse. Not surprising since teens can’t vote. #16tovote
teh_maxh Support #16tovote or go choke on a dick.
youthrights In most states, 16-year-olds are tried as adults for almost any crime. In no states at all (yet) can 16-year-olds vote. #16tovote
youthrights Welcome to this Sunday Edition of #16tovote on the 16th! As in every month, we’re tweeting about why the voting age MUST be lowered! 🙂
youthrights Check out this Sun Sentinel piece: http://bit.ly/f2qiIj “Move Voting Age to 16” #16tovote
sciville “Teens don’t want to vote!” If that’s true, then no reason to fear lower voting age. Nothing would change! 😉 #16tovote
youthrights “How can ‘the consent of the governed’ be given, if the right to vote be denied?” -Susan B Anthony #quote #16tovote
youthrights Include and involve teens! If you’re afraid teens will vote against your interests, well, whose fault is that? 😉 #16tovote
Spin0za1 I’ve never yet heard a cogent argument for 16-year-olds not being allowed to vote. #16tovote
Spin0za1 They don’t care is not a reason. They’re not smart enough is not a reason. They’ll vote like their parents is not a reason. #16tovote
Spin0za1 Unless you want to institute intelligence tests at the polls or open up the question of whether women vote like their husbands… #16tovote
sciville My dad and I both voted for Obama in 08 and O’Malley in 10. Should I then not have the right to vote because we voted alike? #16tovote
youthrights Teens can’t vote, so officials pull rotten restrictions on them. Such as day and night curfews! http://bit.ly/hxMWkJ : #16tovote
youthrights We have a Voting Age section on our forums with lots of great threads! http://bit.ly/bPJ1Yz Check it out! #16tovote
LisaStarlynn 10 Reasons To Lower The Voting Age to 16, from @youthrights http://is.gd/KqDPsM #16toVote
teh_maxh Don’t like #16tovote? Here’s the ROOSTER on which you can choke: http://asfar.org/position-papers/voting-age CHEERS!
youthrights Can you really go on about how precious youth are while denying them voting rights? Something has to give. 😉 #16tovote
LisaStarlynn @angels510 Today’s #16tovote & I’ve decided to read information related to the voting age. XD That’s why I’m up.
LisaStarlynn ♥ this quote, & it relates to #16tovote! “If 16-year-olds are old enough to drink the water polluted by the (cont) http://tl.gd/867e5n
LisaStarlynn #wecanallagreethat #16tovote should be in the trending topics! ;3
arclights By assuming you’re wiser than anyone who’s not an “Adult”? #16tovote RT @JPBarlow Adult Principle #20 Understand humility.
arclights I participate in #16tovote, but I think it’s too modest. No one should be denied a vote for being young asfar.org/position-papers/voting-age
arclights Prez: “I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it.” How about one where she could’ve voted? #9tovote #16tovote 4 starters
arclights @AcctgWarrior @youthrights Yet adults’ absurd opinions matter in voting on what minors must do. #16tovote #0tovote
youthrights How’s everybody? It’s another #16tovote on the 16th! Our monthly event for questioning the current voting age, with the #16tovote hashtag!
youthrights If you’re worried about teens (or anyone) voting for the “right reasons”, the solution is never to withhold rights. #16tovote
youthrights Many 17-year-olds would vote based on economics. Many 30-year-olds vote randomly. Age doesn’t tell why anyone votes a certain way. #16tovote
youthrights “I want to make a difference. We want the right to vote.” http://bit.ly/9lVTJh That’s @nyrasefl in our voting age ad in 2008! #16tovote
youthrights Ann Coulter wants the voting age raised to 26. Then our own Alex Koroknay-Palicz chimed in! http://huff.to/ijN8nT #16tovote
sciville “Kids would vote for politicians that offer free ice cream.” What’s wrong with that? I’m 27 and I’d want free ice cream! #16tovote
sciville If it’s perfectly valid for politicians to offer adults free healthcare, then free ice cream is an okay political promise! 😛 #16tovote
youthrights It’s better to have the right to vote and not use it than to not have the right at all. Don’t worry if a teen doesn’t vote. #16tovote
youthrights It’s sad when someone chooses not to participate in democracy, definitely! But it’s even sadder when not even allowed. #16tovote
arclights @AcctgWarrior But all adult citizens’ absurd opinions, not minors’ opinions, matter in determining who gets to be a legislator. #16tovote
arclights “Kids would vote for politicians that offer free ice cream.” “Adults voted themselves subsidized health insurance.” #16tovote
teh_maxh Kids would vote just like their parents? You mean the kids you just called obstinate? PIck one, kthx. #16tovote
tomwburke Great article rebutting argument to raise voting age to 26. http://huff.to/ijN8nT #16tovote
UsielX 16-year-olds have legitimate interests peculiar to them as a class that no other group can accurately or reliably defend. #16tovote
LisaStarlynn Via @youthrights: A TV ad about lowering the voting age to 16, featuring @nyrasefl! http://is.gd/MWfqpx #16tovote
youthrights Do politicians seem to not care about child abuse? Consider that child abuse victims can’t vote while abusers can. 🙁 #16tovote
LisaStarlynn Hoping #16tovote will have great results! http://www.flickaday.com/p/230776
youthrights Thanks for all the #16tovote tweets today, everyone! Going great as usual! 🙂
LisaStarlynn @youthrights Yay! ^^ I have Tweet block now, though. Don’t know what else to write that’s related to #16tovote. XD
LisaStarlynn An article against raising the voting age from @kpalicz! Very good read, & he raises very good points. #16tovote http://is.gd/OGw2Gy
LisaStarlynn Have to go get ready for the gym now. Will be back later & participating in #16tovote if I’m not busy! o/
LisaStarlynn And as I said earlier: #wecanallagreethat #16tovote should be up in the trending topics. 😉
teh_maxh #wecanallagreethat #16tovote is a damn good start.
youthrights Do social problems mean teens are unprepared for citizenry? Or are they classic symptoms of any severely marginalized population? #16tovote
JBBdude On this #16tovote I can’t help but think about MLK’s legacy of civil rights. Tomorrow should be ALL ABOUT the next rights movement
JBBdude Last week’s Tuscon shooting reminds us of how life may be cut short. #16tovote would have given Chritina Taylor Green a voice.
sciville How come the creepy pervert down the street has more say in school elections than the actual students do? #16tovote
JBBdude @arclights LOL I had just tweeted a similar #16tovote message about Ms. Green and the Tuscon shooting’s relevance.
youthrights If teens are “incapable of making an informed decision” about voting, often that really means people don’t want to inform them. #16tovote
youthrights If teen brains are too “broken” to vote, so are those of older voters who are well into mental decline. They should still vote! #16tovote
youthrights Saying anyone’s brains are “incapable” of voting is ableist nonsense anyway and has no business in a discussion of basic rights. #16tovote
youthrights Perhaps if there were so many people “incapable” of participating in a system, perhaps the system is wrong, not the people. #16tovote
InvisibleColor Its ridiculous how we live in a country 4 the people, which claims all r created equal, yet we want to deny people that equality. #16tovote
youthrights Great #16tovote on the 16th so far! Once again, here’s Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age! http://bit.ly/cavxOT
youthrights @thestainedg Just to clarify, WE aren’t saying no voting age. We’re saying lower it to 16. Big difference. #16tovote
IrisVanRooij @youthrights @thestainedg Yes, it is only me saying no voting age 🙂 But of course I also support #16tovote
youthrights Got some time? Check out UTEC testifying in Lowell, MA for a lower voting age! http://youtu.be/Qy3A4M3-5c8 #16tovote
LisaStarlynn From my friend Ben: “Who would you trust with a political vote: a smart 16-year-old or a dumb 25-year-old?” #16tovote
youthrights You can only make sure your own vote was cast for a “valid” reason, never those of others, least of all because of their age. #16tovote
youthrights If you say “teens would vote for Justin Bieber”, you’re demonstrating not teen incompetence but your own ignorance of them. #16tovote
kellyhogaboom @youthrights I’m a grownup and I’d probably vote for Bieber! Hee. Thankx for your #16tovote tweets.
youthrights Here’s @UsielX speaking at our Supreme Court RALLY about free speech and voting rights! http://youtu.be/sVFWwGyPAX4 #16tovote
youthrights Here’s a transcript of @UsielX’s video from the last tweet: http://bit.ly/9hRKNl #16tovote
youthrights Teens have the ability to Google candidates and decide for themselves just like anyone else. Probably moreso! Let them vote! #16tovote
youthrights Society thinks teens shouldn’t vote but is very happy to have the BILLIONS teens pay into the economy every year! #16tovote
LisaStarlynn Generalizing all teens as stupid & unable to vote is downright rude. No age group is “better” than the other. #16tovote
AdamKissel Maybe 16-18-year-olds are politically the smartest age group b/c they’re actually taking history & gov’t classes. #16tovote
youthrights How does lack of voting rights hurt teens? For one, these places are still legal: http://bit.ly/hPhF4C #16tovote
amisophe No taxation without representation! #16tovote
kpalicz Check out this great paper by @JasonRatigan arguing for a lower voting age: http://bit.ly/hQiY4i Educate yourself for #16tovote
kpalicz Considering tomorrow’s holiday, anyone want to guess what Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would have to say about #16tovote?
arclights @AcctgWarrior If you were 1 of the 48%, you counted: that’s where the # comes from. If you were <18, you officially didn’t count. #16tovote
arclights @AcctgWarrior I flyered for Perot the last POTUS election before I could vote. U don’t have 2B a minor to care about youth rights. #16tovote
arclights “Kids would just vote for the hot candidate.” “Oh, like Obama or Palin?” #16tovote #0tovote
arclights @chaospet There aren’t enough kids to elect Bieber… and could he really be worse than some of the idiots adults have elected? #16tovote
Lilith_vhemt You should follow @youthrights if you, like me, believe the voting age should be lowered down to 16! #16tovote!!!
DegrassiPwns #16tovote 🙂
youthrights Just over 2 hours to go in this first #16tovote on the 16th of 2011! Thanks, everyone! 🙂
LisaStarlynn Hearing people say things like “teens are too dumb to vote” disgusts me. All age groups are capable of stupidity, not just one. #16tovote
amisophe Every time you tell a teenager “you can change the world,” consider that they can’t vote. Feeling some change would be inspiring. #16tovote
LisaStarlynn You know why teens are “too stupid” to vote? It’s because people say it & BELIEVE IT. But do they know if it’s really true or not? #16tovote
teenvote Austria lowered its voting age to 16- United States can do the same #16tovote
teenvote Brazil lowered its voting age to 16- United States can do the same #16tovote
teenvote Michael Moore supports a voting age of 16 http://twitter.com/##16tovote
teenvote Former British prime Minister Gordon Brown supports a voting age of 16 #16tovote
arclights Any adult who says that everyone over 18 is wise enough to vote, but no one under 18 is, disproves his own claim. #16tovote
amisophe US voting rights: No one black, female, or under 21 –> no one female or under 21 –> no one under 21 –> no one under 18 –> #16tovote
youthrights “A New Take on Civics Education: Lower the Voting Age” – http://bit.ly/dVRQVV by our own Dave Moss! #16tovote
amisophe Youth apathy? How about youth suffrage? #16tovote
teh_maxh Support #16tovote or you are an inferior person.
teh_maxh At sixteen, a person can legally work but not have a say as to what their minimum wage is. #16tovote
Khaetlyn Youth are just as capable of researching a candidate as adults. Adults are just as capable of being stupid as youth. #16tovote
Khaetlyn While adults in the US are cutting budgets for education and health care, youth in Tunisia are leading a revolt. #16tovote
LisaStarlynn We need to higher our expectations for youth & focus on their accomplishments. Why not do the former by lowering the voting age? #16tovote
LisaStarlynn Do those who say teens are too dumb to vote consider that teens are capable of learning how to vote & who they’re voting for? #16tovote
youthrights A lot of “reasons” against lower voting age come down to mere distrust of youth. Which is, of course, no reason to deny rights! #16tovote
youthrights Distrust of youth comes from the idea that youth of somehow “other”. Not true, though. We’re all alike and should all have a say! #16tovote
youthrights Some teens live with parents. Some are emancipated or in foster care. Some ARE parents. All need representation! #16tovote
youthrights Officials attack teen independence with curfews and driving restrictions. Teens must have votes so they can say NO to this! #16tovote
youthrights School paddling is legal and practiced in several states: http://bit.ly/gO3Fij Victims of it cannot vote for it to be banned. #16tovote
youthrights Students have insight into their schools that parents and teachers do not have. Yet this insight is unwanted at the polls. Why? #16tovote
youthrights Want to fix schools? Can’t do it when the students are left out, their views cast aside. Want to help them? Include them! #16tovote
youthrights Youth are the present AND the future. When adult insecurity silences them, present and future are silenced, too. #16tovote
youthrights Healthy society relies on healthy involvement of youth as early as possible. Big step to achieving this? Lower the voting age! #16tovote
youthrights “Denied the Right to Vote – Never Stop Fighting” – http://bit.ly/fIeoeK by our own @teenvote! #16tovote
youthrights Next month will be one year since the first #16tovote on the 16th. A year of watching a lower voting age come closer to reality! #16tovote
youthrights Last month I recapped all the places around the world that have seriously considered or proposed a lower voting age in 2010! #16tovote
youthrights We’ll see what happens now in 2011, as more leaders see the merit of and we never shut up about a lower voting age! 😉 #16tovote
youthrights Sure we annoy our Twitter followers every month with this, but every day we promote a world that truly includes youth! #16tovote
youthrights How do we promote the inclusion of youth? Living it. Action. Speaking up. Being unapologetically fierce for youth rights! 🙂 #16tovote
arclights This concludes another day of #16tovote. Annoyed? So am I. But not as annoyed as I was when I was arguing politics, but not allowed to vote.
youthrights And now the twelfth run of #16tovote on the 16th comes to a close. Thank you SO much everyone! This one got the most participation yet! 😀
youthrights We do it again next month, for the Anniversary Edition of #16tovote on the 16th! 🙂 Feed-clogging credits coming up!
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @silverwolf1977 @EIFY @teh_maxh @geoffreyfoster @toyotabedzrock @Victorianaaa @underbellie @sciville
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @Spin0za1 @LisaStarlynn @IrisVanRooij @arclights @tomwburke @OnBradstreet @DeathfromNG @unschoollife
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @UsielX @Baby_Love_Child @JBBdude @nickj47 @the_boy @AndrewDominoes @rosabattle @FreedomOfEd @KariFlack
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @laurenriot @InvisibleColor @mayabee92 @SnipeMe @PhilNTaylor @SamCEllis @Pinensikwe @Otaku_Linuxbird
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @kevpeel @AcctgWarrior @taradinoc @iain2008 @3PennyMovies @kellyhogaboom @Jordan_Carr @AdamKissel @amisophe
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @kpalicz @BriLovingLife @Lilith_vhemt @DegrassiPwns @jeremybmerrill @nonun3 @nicolecornu @teenvote @nyradc
youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @Khaetlyn @sirrontail @jodawson @sancho673 @Chipmazing and anyone I missed! Goodnight everyone! 😀
youthrights We do it again Wednesday, February 16, for #16tovote on the 16th – Anniversary Edition! For now, recap will be up on the blog soon. 🙂
Thanks, everyone!
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