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Opinion
Jonathan Bernstein

Lower the Voting Age, Don’t Raise It

Vivek Ramaswamy’s proposal to increase the voting age to 25 makes no sense on political, practical or philosophical grounds.

Vivek Ramaswamy has a very bad idea about voting.

Vivek Ramaswamy has a very bad idea about voting.

Photographer: Rachel Mummey/Bloomberg

Longshot Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is proposing to raise the voting age from 18 to 25, with exceptions for those who serve in the military, work as first responders, or pass a civics test. “There needs to be some civic experience you need to have gone through in order to actually vote,” he says.

He’s entirely wrong.