The poll comes just days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she personally supported the idea of 16-year-olds voting in federal elections.
According to Rasmussen, the poll shows that only 25 percent of Democrats support lowering the voting age and nine percent of Republicans support this view. Broken down between race, only 32 percent of blacks support lowering the voting age and 16 percent of whites favor that stance.
Both male and female voters are relatively on the same page with this issue, according to Rasmussen. Seventy-seven percent of males surveyed oppose lowering the voting age and 71 percent of females oppose it as well.
The poll also shows 65 percent of 18- to 39-year-olds oppose lowering the voting age, 77 percent of those aged 40 to 64 do not want to see the voting age lowered, and 84 percent of those 65 or older say the voting age should not be lowered either.
The Rasmussen poll was a survey of 1,000 likely voters and was conducted between March 17-18. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.
“I myself, personally—I’m not speaking for my caucus—I myself have always been for lowering the voting age to 16,” Pelosi said last week. “I think it’s really important to capture kids when they’re in high school, when they’re interested in all of this, when they’re learning about government to be able to vote.”
Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley proposed the amendment, but it was defeated 126-305, with just one Republican, Texas Rep. Michael Burgess, supporting the measure.
She further explained, “Many years ago, when I was in school, civics was a requirement. Then — remember that? Well, you don’t remember that, but you read about it.”
She added in part, “But then, it became an elective, and I don’t know. There were other things kids took instead. So, the point is that when they are in high school, we see such a heightened interest in history and civics and climate and gun safety and you name it. And that would be a time for them to be registered to vote.”
Two Democratic presidential candidates, Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris appeared interested in listening to those who support lowering the voting age.
Republicans panned the idea, arguing that Democrats are supportive of the measure simply because younger voters tend to support Democrats more often than Republicans.
Since 2013, 13 states have proposed bills to lower the voting age, ranging from school board elections to state elections.
