A wish for fewer voters at the polls?

Voter turnout in off year elections, in general, and school district elections, in particular, have historically been disappointingly low.  While I do not yet know the statistics regarding turnout for yesterday's District 833 election, at least some in our community would have liked to have seen fewer voters at the polls.  What?  To be clear, they would have liked to have seen fewer young voters.

Some comments on the Woodbury Patch have expressed outrage that 18 year old high school students were voting.  Kathy writes,  " OK, The amount of High school Seniors I saw voting today was absurd. I get you are 18 but you don't pay taxes and shouldn't be able to vote on a referendum let alone vote for a school board candidate on someone you know nothing about!!!! This is an example of Voter fraud."
 
By the time students are 18 years old,  they have been educated in topics such as critical thinking skills, informed decision making, and the political process.  They are likely to be able to  tell you when voting rights were tied to property ownership, gender, and race. They have studied the sullied history of voter suppression and know they lengths to which our forbearers went to correct injustice.  In other words, they have done their voting homework.

These same students also have an edge on older community members: students have been in our classrooms, actually experiencing education in this district, rather than simply reading about it or hearing rumors about it. Students know what it means to have appropriate technology available, or not available. They know the difference made by having fewer students in their classrooms, so that teachers are better able  to meet their learning needs. They know what having a well-rounded, rich curriculum can do to help prepare them for their futures.

Might some of them have been swayed by a friend?  Might they have voted for candidates, about which they had limited knowledge?  Perhaps, in some cases, but I'd hazard a guess that this is no different from voters in all age groups!
 
The take away lesson is that it is important for all voters  - and people who comment - to take the responsibility to do their homework.  Perhaps then we can have a fully informed, engaged electorate, one who turns out - even for off-year elections - in record numbers.