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The only seemingly logical argument for a raised voting age is that young voters may take this right for granted. Though this is true, it is not unique to young voters. I am twenty one now and voted for the first time in the 2004 election, just four months after my eighteenth birthday. Though I had followed politics most of my life and was already reasonably informed by the time the race for the Presidency began, I took it upon myself to find out as much as I could about the candidates, and even researched lesser known parties like the Libertarians and the Green Party. I wanted to find out which candidates and policies best suited my beliefs. This behavior was common among most people I knew my age, although there were exceptions. While some of my peers may have written in Spider Man as a candidate, I know even more seasoned voters who simply checked either the republican or democratic boxes at the top of the ballot simply because this is the party they claim to be a member of. In my opinion, the latter is more detrimental. Casting an uninformed vote is far worse than simply throwing a vote away.

In my experiences, people my age tend to fall into three categories; those who don't bother to vote, those who throw away their vote as a joke, and those who take this new responsibility to heart.

I remember one of my favorite things to do back then was to drive up to the Caribou Coffee near my house, buy a drink and have a seat outside. If there wasn't a political discussion going on when I sat down, one would start within minutes. The most common coffee house conversations in the months leading up to the election were heated debates about everything ranging from the squandering of the national surplus to the US presence in the Middle East. Arguments could be found for and against any issue that came up. These people are young and seeking to shape and define their political beliefs. They owe no allegiance to a party simply because they once believed in it. If anybody was apathetic or uninformed and sitting within twenty feet, they wouldn't be for long. The responsibility was new and exciting. People were passionate. This was the first time in our lives that we felt like we had a real say in the world around us.

Granted, this was not universal. In other circles of friends, I'd bring up politics and be met with rolling eyes and shaking heads. At first, I was appalled by such behavior. I couldn't understand why somebody would waste a right that is essential to the American

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