Should voting rights be recinded for the elderly?

Speaking as an elderly man, I resent any attempts to disenfranchise myself or my friends and family. As for the woman who ran over somebody in your post, I can balance that with stories about the young. A few weeks ago a teenager ran over five bicyclists.

Respectfully, don't you think that public safety should be the #1 concern?

Given the amazing poor record of teenage drivers you mean we should not allow teenagers to drive at all?????????

Teenagers don't typically suffer from dementia and declining cognitive ability though.

I want to support you, I really do, but I looked at the data. By your logic, men under 25 should definitely not be allowed to vote. Elderly drivers under 80 are not nearly as deadly as I thought.

I believe only intelligent people should be allowed to vote. No one has figured out how to make this work.

They stand at opposite ends of the demographic spectrum. And both groups include many good drivers. But statistics show that overall, teenagers and older drivers are involved in far more crashes and high­way fatalities than any other age group.

Mile for mile, the crash rate for drivers ages 16 and 17, for example, is almost nine times as high as that for middle-aged drivers. People 80 and older are involved in 5.5 times as many fatal crashes per mile driven as middle-­aged drivers.

Total deaths for teens and seniors have declined in recent years, as have all passenger-­vehicle fatalities. But their risk level remains high and the challenge could become greater in coming years.

The Pew Research Center says that 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65 every day for the next 18 years. By 2030, they’ll represent almost one in five drivers. In the population overall they’ll outnumber 16- to 19-year-olds more than three to one. Some experts call that trend the silver tsunami.

That could increase the safety risk as drivers begin to lose their abilities. “Unfortunately I think most states are woefully unprepared for the coming wave of baby boomers,” says David W. Eby, Ph.D., research scientist at the Univer­sity of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

For young and old drivers, the reasons behind the risk are as different as the people themselves. Teens struggle with inexperience behind the wheel and ­developing brains that might not accurately assess risks. Older drivers have plenty of experience and even tend to drive less. But age-related conditions can impede their driving ability. And when a crash happens, their fragility leads to more severe outcomes.

“If we’re ever going to solve the aging mobility problem, we need to have better alternatives for people,” Eby says. “It can’t always fall to the personal vehicle.”

Effective steps are being taken by the government, automakers, and families to reduce accidents and deaths among teens and seniors. But more needs to be done.

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/10/teenagers-and-older-people-are-the-riskiest-drivers/index.htm

As many state governments do their best to restrict voting rights by making it harder for the elderly to vote, I resent any attempt to slow down my rights to vote.

Mental competence has never been a requirement for voting.

As revealed by the many donkey votes from our young people.

With respect to seniors behind the wheel, what I find alarming is their reaction time. I believe a doctor should have to write a competency letter for drivers - either they are or they aren't, which then can be appealed and perhaps they could submit to a cognitive test or sessions behind a simulator or both. I understand the feeling of loss of independence and freedom, but sometimes the greater good of all is more important than the one.

My FIL and MIL both drove in their 90s and it was a scary proposition. My MILs car looks like it had been in a powder derby. None of her kids would take away her keys and she had no need to go anywhere. Nobody in her facility would park beside her. Neither of them should have been driving for several reasons. And how you know that is she would hand her kids her keys and ask them to drive, but if they weren't there, she would get behind the wheel.

With the youth, it's often inexperience, distracted driving, a feeling of invincibility, showing off, bad weather, bad road conditions - all kinds of reasons. Maybe they should have a two or three year Learner's period, and more simulated driving lessons.

And to segue... who are are these idiots with ear buds who are walking around looking at their phones? Crossing streets, walking on railway tracks... really, it's just stupid. Hopefully this will improve over time.

Intelligence isn't the metric by which to determine who votes. There are people with PHDs who will tell you with a straight face that there are more than two biological genders. These people aren't dumb, so why are they saying something that is provably false?

Values should determine who votes.

In a democracy all that one groups needs is a 51% majority to oppress the rest of the people.

The people who are allowed to vote should be chosen based on civil service and whether or not they are a net taxpayer. People who have served in the military deserve to be able to vote because they served their country. People who pay a net amount in taxes deserve to vote because they have a vested interest in where their own money is spent. People who aren't taxpayers don't care how much money is wasted because it's not their own money.

Some older people are mentally competent, but the boomers are the most selfish generation that ever existed. The boomers were born into a time in history with unprecedented opportunity, and what did they do? They voted themselves other people's money. Simply because they could.

One thing that boomers value above all else is social security. They don't care if they ruin the future of all the generations that come after them, as long as they get all the free money. Never mind if everyone born after them pays into the system but never gets to see one dime of their own money back.

Boomers are without a doubt the most selfish, arrogant, and stupid generation. That's why they talk down to everyone younger than them, even though they did nothing to make America as strong as it once was. That strength was because of the sacrifice of the greatest generation and the silent generation. The boomers have just been milking the tits of everything that they didn't work to earn.

I think the car accidents were meant as an example. But teenagers have the opportunity to grow and mature whereas the elderly will only become more senile over time. One group has the ability to improve themselves, and the other, by nature, can only decline.

I don't think that under 25 years should be allowed to vote either though because they're too immature and simply don't have the life experience to make rational choices that impact the country. But the elderly are far more worrisome because of the degradation of their brain matter over time.

I believe everyone should be automatically registered to vote. The ones that need watching are the ones counting. Those I don't trust at all.

Should smothering some children in their cribs be such a bad thing? Say millennials in particular?

And typically, neither do the elderly.

Why are there so many psychotic millennials stumbling around?

First what does voting rights have to do with being a poor driver ? Should we remove voting rights from those that have a speeding record, DUIs, or anyone who has recklessly driven?

And I do not equate an elderly person that probably should not drive to be someone necessarily with having dementia. It is just as likely that as they age they are not as quick in reflexes or not able to see as well.

Even with all this true - it is an individual case. And this to me is more along the lines of how do you prevent someone who is not a capable driver as they age to stop driving - which is a completely separate issue than whether someone is capable of making a good decision to vote.

So flip to the elderly that their mental faculties become so diminished that they simply aren't capable of making sound decisions. I think that should be your premise and keep the bad driving separate (as that is a different issue entirely). There are so many holes in this that I do not know where to start.

First off - "They've made some very bad financial decisions recently as ell as expressed some very foolish and bizarre political opinions."

I know people significantly younger who have done both of these - should we take their voting rights away? I am sure everyone has. This is not just an elderly thing.

Secondly - "Most old people don't know how to use computers. " Completely untrue - many older people are regularly using computers to connect with family. Now granted (and even I do and I am not quite to the elderly stage) even I - reach out to my kids - my mom reaches out to her grandchildren for some technology help. To me this has more to do with the fact that younger people have grown up with technology whereas older folks have been using technology only say a quarter of their life. So the lack of knowledge of computers and technology lies more on experience in the use of rather than being mentally lacking.

In many ways the older folks are actually more knowledgeable - think of the many more years experience and things they have gone through that you have yet to even experience. In many ways this gives them a greater capacity to understand who to vote for than you.

And even giving all this and say that we would agree that the elderly are incapable of thinking clearly and making a good decision (and that means every old person which is obviously wrong and kind of really dumb seeing our current President and pretty much every President prior to him could not even vote) - that would also mean we would have to stop every other person regardless of age to no not vote because of stupid decisions they have made.

Are you trying to practice debate or something because if you are pick a better premise because this premise is so full of holes it is laughable.

But what has that to do with voting? The question was should voting rights be rescinded for the elderly?

Yeah, I was responding to another OP's point. But to answer your question, I don't think the elderly can be considered any more suspect at voting than anyone else, so no, I don't think they should be prohibited from voting. It's a right and a privilege, and in my mind, an obligation.

First off - lumping everyone in a particular category because of age is plain old stupid - i.e. "but the boomers are the most selfish generation that ever existed" Funny that many boomers think the same of the following generations - i.e. everyone gets a trophy, they don't need to work hard - I am one of the cuspers as far as generation in between boomers and Gen X. There are plenty of generous people in all generations and plenty of hard workers and plenty of lazy people. You probably do not realize that most Boomers have saved to a 401k or IRA because they realize that social security is not reliable - and this borrowing for the future of SS started when SS began - that was the entire premise of SS that future generations would be able to supply it - it was around the time of boomers that they realized this is not a good thing and thus things like IRAs and 401ks were started.

Secondly "People who aren't taxpayers don't care how much money is wasted because it's not their own money." - there is more involved in politics than where you spend your money. There is equal rights, there is handling a pandemic, there is providing safety, there is environmental protection, etc. Also, in your thought process then a retired person living off social security would not be able to vote? They have worked their entire life and paid taxes but yet now they cannot vote because they no longer pay taxes? Makes no sense.



I disagree with both of these - first there are many very mature 25 years old - also if you expect someone to go to war then they should be able to vote, but you said this before so which is it? Are they too immature or because they are in the military - you cannot have it both ways. Also depending on your age there are different things that are important and impact your life so you should be able to have a say in that. The only agreement I would have with you that under 25 should not vote is if they are still considered a minor and therefore cannot go into the military and cannot held responsible for any adult decisions whatsoever. You cannot have it both ways - take away a right but then make one be responsible in all other ways.

As far as the elderly - it is again very individual. There are many 95 and on up that have full mental capacity and adding in their years of experience may be in better position to make a decision such as voting. Also their concerns are different than say a 25 year old or a 35 year old or a 45 year old. They should be able to have a say on political issues that impact them.

So unless you want to move onto a country without freedoms - the idea of taking away voting rights because certain people feel others are not capable of making the best decisions is here to stay. In part I would vote for you not having voting rights because of all the less than intelligent comments you have made here.

Amen to that