Canada

Thanks for writing a substantive and humorous reply.

A few things to clarify: The 4 years comes from the American context where most elections take place every 4 years. In Canada with amendments to the Canada Elections Act Parliament can sit up to 5 years. So I guess we should do calculations with 5 instead?

Also, the reason it was a minus and not a plus is because you're not "getting used to a developed brain" but rather be given the opportunity to influence the world you'll be in by the time you're that age.

Driving is a skill, and like any skill it's best to learn it while young; kind of like riding a bike except with a 2 tonne metal object. Voting, while should be taken seriously, is not a skill in the same way. So that's my distinction.

I get what you're saying about every election being a referendum, but I was mainly thinking about referendum questions such as Quebec/Scotland/Catalonia independence and European Union membership, stuff like that.

Now on to the rest. I like how you brought up a bunch of important things such as scientific discrimination/racism, and it's very much a warranted fear. I would stand clear of any individual testing. Furthermore, I think the number was made over a large population and as such is an average of sorts. I'd rather take it from there to have some level of abstraction and not get too personal. You're probably right with the different levels of maturity found among any age group, but again I'd rather rely on averages. It is also important to be careful because as you noted science has been used to discriminate against people we now find abhorrent. To be honest the rationale for excluding potential younger voters is based in the same traditions. The only real thing I can say is that the "development" is compared to an abstract "full development" based on averages.

The thing I'm most interested is setting the custom. By having high school students participate in elections it more likely will set up the habit of voting that currently is. My only counter would be that a national holiday would be more effective at this.

I like your comments and hope you provide more insight into my position. Sorry for my response not being as funny as yours.