It Takes a Village . . . But Let the Teenagers Vote

Joseph Fishkin*

In their article Give Parents the Vote, Kleinfeld and Sachs argue that we ought to give parents extra votes to cast by proxy on behalf of their minor children. In this response, I argue that their proposal misconceives the nature of voting itself. Unlike a child’s personal medical or financial decisions, which we entrust to those most responsible for a child’s care, voting is a collective act by which a political community makes collective choices. Each of us is obligated to cast our vote in the way we think best for the whole community. And each voter—whether a parent or a nonparent—is morally and constitutionally entitled to an equal vote. At the same time, it is true that those under age 18 are often not especially well represented in our current system. Empirical evidence suggests that high school students are as able to vote as young adults. So rather than giving extra votes to their parents, I argue that we ought to let teenagers vote.

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© 2025 Joseph Fishkin. Individuals and nonprofit institutions may reproduce and distribute copies of this Essay in any format at or below cost, for educational purposes, so long as each copy identifies the author, provides a citation to the Notre Dame Law Review, and includes this provision in the copyright notice.

*Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law. The author would like to thank Grayson Rost for excellent research assistance.