--- title: Who can vote, and why children cannot — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Who can vote, and why children cannot», a lesson of the politics course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Not everyone can vote: in most countries you must be 18, and usually a citizen, and your name must be on the official list of voter --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/) / Who can vote, and why children cannot # Who can vote, and why children cannot Lesson 3 of the politics course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/0/) — Not everyone can vote: in most countries you must be 18, and usually a citizen, and your name must be on the official list of voters; these are rules people chose, and people argue about changing them. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/1/) — The age line is not a cleverness test: a 9-year-old may know more about planets than Uncle Steve, but the rule is drawn at an age so it is the same for everyone, famous or not, rich or poor. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/2/) — The rules have changed before: your great-great-gran may not have been allowed to vote just because she was a woman, until campaigners called suffragettes and suffragists won that right. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/3/) — Countries still differ: 16-year-olds vote in Scottish and Welsh elections, Australians must vote or pay a small fine, and some countries let prisoners vote while others do not. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/4/) — Children cannot vote, but decisions about schools, parks and the planet affect them for longest, so they can still learn, ask questions, write to leaders and talk to the grown-ups who do vote. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/5/) — In most countries the voting age is 18; it is a line drawn at an age, not a test of how much you know. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/6/) — In Scotland and Wales, 16- and 17-year-olds can vote in their own parliament and council elections; Austria also lets 16-year-olds vote. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/8/) — Suffrage means the right to vote; New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893, the USA in 1920, and the UK partly in 1918 and on equal terms with men in 1928. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/9/) — Usually only citizens can vote for a country's government, but there are exceptions: in the UK, Irish and Commonwealth citizens who live there can vote in general elections. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/10/) — In many countries you must register to vote, which puts your name on the official voters' list (the electoral register or electoral roll); this helps stop people voting twice. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/11/) — In Australia voting is compulsory for adult citizens: if you do not vote and have no good reason, you may get a small fine, though you can still hand in a blank paper. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/12/) — In the UK, the USA and New Zealand, voting is a free choice, not a duty. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/13/) — Turnout means how many people actually voted; in many elections only about half to two-thirds of the people who could vote do so. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/14/) — Being famous or rich does not give you a vote: the rule is one person, one vote, decided by things like age and citizenship. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/15/) — In the UK most people in prison cannot vote; in Ireland and Canada they can; people argue about which is right. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/3-who-can-vote-and-why-children-cannot/17/) — A youth parliament is a group of young people elected to speak for other young people. - ← previous: [Elections and voting: ballots, counting and winning](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/2-elections-and-voting-ballots-counting-and-winning/) - next →: [Parties: teams with ideas](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/4-parties-teams-with-ideas/) - ↑ back to [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/)