1. What are the requirements for someone to vote in your country?

What is one requirement that you

would like to see removed or added? Explain your rationale or reasoning with examples to support
your idea.
In France, the requirement to vote is to have French citizenship and you need to be of legal age,
which is 18 years old at the latest on the day before the election. You also need to register on the
electoral lists to be able to vote. If there was a requirement to change it would be the age
requirement. I think it would be better to lower it to 16 or 17 because at this age you are already a
young adult and can be interested in politics. It would allow young people to be heard more on some
political issues. At 17 years old you will have the same mindset and vision of the world as at 18, it
does not make any sense to need to be legally 18 the day before the election. But it would need new
laws and not everyone at this age is interested in politics so it could or could not make a difference in
France’s politics.

2. Should a country place any requirements on voting? Why or why not? Do voting
requirements marginalize or restrict any group of people from voting?

It is the requirements on voting made by a country that makes the citizen’s votes count. Because it
decides who can vote and who is implicated in the political life of the country, voting is a
responsibility of each citizen that can not be neglected. And this is why requirements are necessary,
you can’t vote when you are too young because most people under and around 18 do not care about
politics. Voting requirements should be made so that people actively participating in the country,
working, and living in it should have the right to vote. But it also needs to be restricted because, if
people knowing nothing about politics vote it would not represent the majority of the population. In
France, voting requirements do restrict some people from voting because even if they are interested
in politics and live and work in France, if they do not have French citizenship, they will never be
able to vote.

3. In your opinion, is voting a right or a responsibility? Explain your rationale or reasoning with
examples to support your idea.

In my opinion, voting is a responsibility before it is a right. Voting means you are implicated in the
political life of your country; you know what is going on and you are voting for the politician that
you think represents your ideals the most. But if you know nothing about voting and are just given
the right to vote, you may endanger the fairness of voting, moreover, voting was made to represent
the majority of the people but if people vote without any idea, they will only impact the ones trying
to be heard. But voting is also a right, it is the most important way the majority of the population can
be heard on political issues, and it allows the people to have a real impact on how the country is
governed.

4. Studies show that young people, ages 18-24, are among those least likely to vote. Why is that
true, in your opinion? What is one idea that you have for increasing voter turnout among
young voters? Explain your idea and how it will encourage voting among 18-24 year-olds.

In my opinion, young people don’t want to vote anymore because they think that their opinion will
not matter. People ages 18-24 are a minority in front of all the older people having the right to vote.
Most of the politicians and people voting are parents of those young people and have entirely
different beliefs from this younger generation. For example, young people tend to care more about
the environment and try to make a change, but it is a minority that almost does not matter in the
political world. Young people don’t feel the need to vote because they are not represented by politics
and their political parties. Moreover, before you are 18 nobody talks to you about politics, political
interest is not developed before 18. Because of this when you turn 18 you need to learn and
understand the political world to vote, for the majority of people, it is not attracting and does not
have any real interest. Young people need to be taught earlier about politics and they need to be
shown that they can be heard on political issues.