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URBANDALE, Iowa — Vivek Ramaswamy, a millennial Republican running for president who would be the youngest to ever hold the job, descended on this key early state this week touting a provocative proposal to raise the minimum voting age for most Americans to 25.
“I want more civic engagement. My hypothesis is that when you attach greater value to the act, we will see more 18-to-25-year-olds actually vote than do now,” said Ramaswamy, 37, in an interview Thursday after he formally unveiled his idea at an event here. The proposal would involve meeting one of several requirements to vote before turning 25, such as passing a civics test.
But the proposition, which would require a constitutional amendment, has met a swift backlash from youth-vote organizers, including in his own party, who say he is promoting a dangerous idea that will suppress the vote — and one that reminds them of literacy tests and other Jim Crow laws that once targeted Black voters.
This article was written by Dylan Wells and originally published on www.washingtonpost.com