Opening event
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Scotland, Wales, Austria, and Germany allow 16-year-olds to vote. Studies show they turn out at higher rates and are more likely to vote for life. Is denying them the ballot paternalism — or prudence? Two debaters, opposing sides — you score who makes the stronger case.
Monday, November 23, 2026 · 7:00 PM EST
What's at stake
Lower the voting age and candidates must compete for young people's interests. Keep it at 18 and those interests stay structurally underrepresented for another generation.
The Matchup
Debater: To be announced
Debater: To be announced
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Record a 60-second video on either side, or make it in writing. The strongest cases get featured before the live debate.
“In many US states, 16-year-olds can be prosecuted and sentenced as adults for serious crimes. They can drive, work, and pay payroll taxes. Excluding them from the vote while subjecting them to adult legal consequences tracks no consistent developmental theory — it is an arbitrary line inherited from historical practices that predate modern civic life.”
“Research from Austria, where 16-year-olds have voted in national elections since 2007, shows their turnout rate exceeds that of 18-to-25-year-olds, and their political knowledge is comparable. The empirical assumption that 16-year-olds are civically less capable than young adults does not survive scrutiny when both groups receive the same civic education.”
“Neuroscience consistently shows the prefrontal cortex — governing impulse control, risk assessment, and resistance to peer pressure — is not fully developed until the mid-20s. Society accounts for this reality: 16-year-olds cannot drink, serve on juries, or enter most binding contracts. Voting is a consequential collective decision that warrants the same developmental threshold we apply to other high-stakes choices.”
“Sixteen-year-olds are embedded in institutional environments where authority figures — teachers, parents, social media algorithms — have structurally disproportionate influence. Research on adolescent peer conformity shows teenagers are more susceptible to in-group social pressure than adults. Whoever most effectively reaches teenagers in school settings gains a structural electoral advantage.”
The Format
Standard SuperDebate: two people, cross-examination, moderated from start to finish.
4 min · PRO · opening case
4 min · CON questions PRO
4 min · CON · opening case
4 min · PRO questions CON
3 min · PRO
3 min · CON
3 min · PRO · final case
3 min · CON · final case
— · You pick the winner
Don't miss it
The debate happens live with real-time audience voting. Get one email right before we go live, with the watch link.
Premieres
Monday, November 23, 2026 · 7:00 PM EST
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