It's worth thinking through the actual impact on behavior that a lower voting age would bring.
I tend to think it's a bad idea because of how it would change behavior of some adults who interact with children.
As adults, if we want to do more than just voting, we can go door-to-door talking to voters, for example. We can put up posters, or make calls. If another voter isn't convinced, they can just say so; if they don't even want to talk, they can close the door or hang up the phone.
But children are often captive audiences. They are surrounded by adults (adult family members, teachers, etc.) who can and do tell them what to do, and there are consequences if they fight back. Sure, you can lie to Dad and say "sure, I voted for your guy", but what if he catches you lying and actually kicks you out of the house like he said he would? A teacher probably wouldn't outright tell students how to vote. But... they'd certainly have a much bigger incentive to teach them good political thinking, for the teacher's value of "good". There are already church leaders who outright tell their congregations how God wants them to vote. Do we want to point that kind of crap at kids as well?
A lot of adults wouldn't abuse their power, of course. Currently, children can't vote, so they have far less incentive to abuse it in this way.
I tend to think it's a bad idea because of how it would change behavior of some adults who interact with children.
As adults, if we want to do more than just voting, we can go door-to-door talking to voters, for example. We can put up posters, or make calls. If another voter isn't convinced, they can just say so; if they don't even want to talk, they can close the door or hang up the phone.
But children are often captive audiences. They are surrounded by adults (adult family members, teachers, etc.) who can and do tell them what to do, and there are consequences if they fight back. Sure, you can lie to Dad and say "sure, I voted for your guy", but what if he catches you lying and actually kicks you out of the house like he said he would? A teacher probably wouldn't outright tell students how to vote. But... they'd certainly have a much bigger incentive to teach them good political thinking, for the teacher's value of "good". There are already church leaders who outright tell their congregations how God wants them to vote. Do we want to point that kind of crap at kids as well?
A lot of adults wouldn't abuse their power, of course. Currently, children can't vote, so they have far less incentive to abuse it in this way.