January 18, 2004 at 09:56:51
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January 18, 2004 15-year-old Miranda Rosenberg has started a petition like no other before in the country. Her dream is to lower the Floridian voting age from 18 to 16. And she might just achieve this dream. "It all started last year" said Miranda during a recent speech at the Palm Beach County Democrats convention, "I was forced to pay 30 dollars of taxes for working over the summer. This to me was an outrage, it's nothing less then taxation without representation." Miranda went on to claim that over 70% of Florida teens have some sort of job and therefore need to pay taxes. "Why shouldn't we vote?" Well, according to most opposition, teen voters would vote for rock stars. But Miranda points out that it was the adults who elected Jessie Ventura, former wrestler, as their governor, and elected Ronald Reagen, former movie star, as their president. Opponents keep at it by pointing out that the other 49 states have eighteen as their voting age, so why should we be different? But once again Miranda tackles this by claiming that she hopes that Florida will become the nation's example. "We won't know how it turns out unless we give it a try" she says. Will Miranda be able to get it on the ballot? Well, according to Florida law, she needs 489,000 registered voters to sign the petition. She currently has 2,000. But she thinks that she'll be able to do it. She asks that anyone who wants to sign it or who wants more information on this petition to go to www.voteat16.com Recently, this petition has been getting national attention by starring as one of Jay Leno's opening jokes this week, "In Palm Beach County, Florida, a teenager is petitioning to lower the voting age to 16. Just what they need down there -- more incompetent voters." But Miranda's okay with the jokes, saying that any publicity is good publicity. Miranda is also trying to raise funds for her campaign so that she can take her speeches on the road and try for more public support. As of right now, the situation amongst Florida voters towards the petition looks bad. In a recently released Sun-Sentinel poll, 73.1% of voters say they would not support this if and when it was brought up at the voting booth. But Miranda's optimism keeps at it, she says that if she manages to get 489,000 petitions she'll convince the voters before election day. |