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Winning the lottery: does it guarantee happiness.

  • One study says that lottery winners do see improvement in happiness and well-being
  • Research finds that household income, once above $75,000, does not bring more happiness
  • Experiences bring more happiness than possessions, research suggests

(CNN) -- She was a mother of three living in a small apartment and working four jobs. And then, as if in a fairy tale, she won her state's lottery last year. But the story doesn't have the happy ending you might expect.

She didn't do anything overly extravagant after the $1.3 million got slashed in taxes. She bought a house, got a new wardrobe at the Salvation Army, cut work down to just one job and invested the rest.

And then came the phone calls: promises, marriage proposals, accusations, threats. People who used to volunteer to help her do things wanted money for their trouble. Family members, she says, tried to run her life, and control her money.

"Sometimes I wish I could change my name and go somewhere and hide," said the woman, who asked not to be identified to prevent further attention.

It's fun to think about what you would do if you played lottery numbers that brought in millions of dollars. But, disillusioning as it may seem, big winnings can come with big costs, especially because of the greed of others, experts say.

winning the lottery essay

Jim McCullar of Washington state, who claimed half of the Mega Millions $380 million prize Thursday, said he was initially afraid to come forward because "all we saw were predators and we were afraid to do anything until we got down here with police protection."

McCullar is "not going to know who to trust and whether he can even stay and live in the same hometown," said Steven Danish, professor of psychology and social and behavioral health at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Lottery winners sometimes experience high-profile misfortune. West Virginia businessman Andrew "Jack" Whittaker Jr. is a well-known example; he won $112 million after taxes in 2002. Among his personal tragedies since then, his granddaughter and daughter have both died, and he has allegedly been robbed several times.

Another case is Abraham Shakespeare of Florida, who was slain after winning a $31 million lottery prize. A friend was charged with murder in his death last year and has pleaded not guilty . Shakespeare, Whittaker and other unlucky winners have been featured in documentaries such as E!'s "Curse of the Lottery."

Winning money in a lottery isn't always a "Lost"-style curse , of course. Lee McDaniel, 67, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, won $5 million in the Georgia Lottery last year. He says he has seen no downsides at all and doesn't have anyone in his life after his money. He remodeled his house, bought a large RV and a Jeep, and invested a good chunk of it at low risk.

Aside from those material upgrades, one of the greatest parts of winning, in his view, was being able to help his sister in California, who needed a leg amputation. She would have had to live in a nursing home, but McDaniel gave her enough money to build a ramp in her own home. He and his wife also gave money to other relatives, just because they wanted to.

"I don't feel that I have changed. I am just very secure financially," he said.

If money could bring happiness

Research in psychology and economics has found that people do get happier as their income increases, but only up to a certain level where they are comfortable. One of the more recent studies on the subject, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last year, found life satisfaction rises with higher incomes up to a household income of about $75,000, and levels off afterward.

In general, the research on the happiness of lottery winners is mixed. A 2006 study in the Journal of Health Economics of lottery winners in Britain who won up to $200,000 found an improvement in their mental well-being two years later. But an often-referenced study from 1978, comparing 22 major lottery winners with people who did not win, found no difference in happiness levels between the two groups.

There's not an extensive amount of study in this area, but experts have a few ideas about how to make that initial thrill of winning last longer and increase overall satisfaction.

Have a plan

You've probably fancifully imagined what you might do with lottery earnings, but those who do well have serious plans for where they want to be in five years. Lottery winnings can help them get there, said Danish, the psychology professor.

Those who don't have clear life goals are more likely to feel overwhelmed and fumble with the money, even more than before winning, he said.

Be a giver, not a lender

It's a common experience that giving away money makes people feel good, and science backs that up. A 2008 study in Science found that people were happier spending $20 on others than they were on themselves. In general, research supports the idea that people feel good when they feel they are making an impact with their money in a personal way and a sense of shame when they are stingy.

Indeed, most iReporters said they would use $380 million to help the world , if they won that kind of money in the lottery.

But if someone asks you for help paying a bill, that's a different story. If a friend owes you money, and you see him or her go have a nice dinner, you feel offended, said Michael Norton, associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, who co-authored the Science study.

"When you become the rich person, who other people look to, it can actually erode the social bond that you have with people, because it changes your relationship from friendship into almost like a transaction," Norton said.

Invest in making memories

It's a personal decision, of course, but research supports spending money on experiences rather than material possessions . Not only do going places and seeing things lead to more happiness, but experience-oriented people are better liked by others than those who are materialistic , a 2010 study found.

And that's partly because once we buy something, we get used to having it around, and it no longer gives us the pleasure it did in the first few days following a purchase. An experience, on the other hand, can be enjoyed again and again when you remember it and tell others about it. Likewise, if you suddenly get a lot of money and spend it all at once, you might not get as much happiness as you would if you spread it out over time.

If you slowly change your lifestyle so that you keep appreciating that new money, you'll most likely be happier than if you quickly make large adjustments at once, Norton said. For example, you could make a point to take a big trip once a year, rather than putting it all into a house.

And that might be why Harvard economist Guido Imbens found that lottery winners who received annual payouts averaging $20,000 (in 1986 dollars) were happier on average -- the recipients got to have the excitement of getting more money each year, rather than adjusting to one lump sum.

Does money change you?

It's not clear that winning money changes personality, and it's impossible to know how people's lives would have gone otherwise had they not won, Norton said.

The woman who used to work four jobs said she doesn't feel that she's changed -- but a lot of people around her have. She's grateful for what she has but feels scared to lose it.

"I don't know whether 'happy' is the word," she said. "I'm still trying to grasp it."

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Interesting Literature

A Summary and Analysis of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Lottery’ is the best-known story of the American writer Shirley Jackson. Published in the New Yorker in 1948 and collected in The Lottery and Other Stories , the story is about a village where an annual lottery is drawn. However, the fate of the person who draws the ‘winning’ slip is only revealed at the end of the story in a dark twist.

‘The Lottery’ forces us to address some unpleasant aspects of human nature, such as people’s obedience to authority and tradition and their willingness to carry out evil acts in the name of superstition.

You can read ‘The Lottery’ here before proceeding to our summary and analysis of Jackson’s story below. You might also be interested in the following articles we have written on other aspects of the story:

‘The Lottery’: key quotes explained

‘The Lottery’: key themes discussed

‘The Lottery’: main symbols

But for the present, let’s start with a brief summary of the plot of the story.

‘The Lottery’: plot summary

The story takes place one morning between ten o’clock and noon on 27 June, in a village somewhere in (presumably) the USA. The year is not stated. The three hundred villagers are gathering to undertake the annual ritual of the lottery, which is always drawn on this date every year. Some of the children of the village are busy making a pile of stones which they closely guard in the corner of the village square.

The lottery is led by a Mr Summers, who has an old black box. Inside the black box, slips of paper have been inserted, all of them blank apart from one. The head of each household, when called up to the box by Mr Summers, has to remove one slip of paper.

When every household has drawn a slip of paper, the drawn slips are opened. It is discovered that Bill Hutchinson has drawn the marked slip of paper, and it is explained that, next, one person from within his family must be chosen. His family comprises five people: himself, his wife Tessie, and their three children, Bill Jr., Nancy, and Dave.

Bill’s wife, Tessie, isn’t happy that her family has been chosen, and calls for the lottery to be redrawn, claiming that her husband wasn’t given enough time to choose his slip of paper. But the lottery continues: now, each of the five members of the Hutchinson household must draw one slip from the black box. One slip will be marked while the others are not.

Each of the Hutchinsons draw out a slip of paper, starting with the youngest of the children. When they have all drawn a slip, they are instructed to open the folded pieces of paper they have drawn. All of them are blank except for Tessie’s, which has a black mark on it which Mr Summers had made with his pencil the night before.

Now, the significance of the pile of stones the children had been making at the beginning of the story becomes clear. Each of the villagers picks up a stone and they advance on Tessie, keen to get the business over with. One of the villagers throws a stone at Tessie’s head. She protests that this isn’t right and isn’t fair, but the villagers proceed to hurl their stones, presumably stoning her to death.

‘The Lottery’: analysis

‘The Lottery’ is set on 27 June, and was published in the 26 June issue of the New Yorker in 1948. Perhaps surprisingly given its status as one of the canonical stories of the twentieth century, the story was initially met with anger and even a fair amount of hate mail from readers, with many cancelling their subscriptions. What was it within the story that touched a collective nerve?

winning the lottery essay

We may scoff at the Carthaginians sacrificing their children to the gods or the Aztecs doing similar, but Jackson’s point is that every age and every culture has its own illogical and even harmful traditions, which are obeyed in the name of ‘tradition’ and in the superstitious belief that they have a beneficial effect.

To give up the lottery would, in the words of Old Man Warner, be the behaviour of ‘crazy fools’, because he is convinced that the lottery is not only beneficial but essential to the success of the village’s crops. People will die if the lottery is not drawn, because the crops will fail and people will starve as a result. It’s much better to people like Old Man Warner that one person be chosen at random (so the process is ‘fair’) and sacrificed for the collective health of the community.

There are obviously many parallels with other stories here, as well as various ethical thought experiments in moral philosophy. The trolley problem is one. A few years after Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ was published, Ray Bradbury wrote a story, ‘ The Flying Machine ’, in which a Chinese emperor decides it is better that one man be killed (in order to keep the secret of the flying machine concealed from China’s enemies) than that the man be spared and his invention fall into the wrong hands and a million people be killed in an enemy invasion.

But what makes the lottery in Jackson’s story even more problematic is that there is no evidence that the stoning of one villager does affects the performance of the village crops. Such magical thinking obviously belongs to religious superstition and a belief in an intervening God who demands a sacrifice in recognition of his greatness before he will allow the crops to flourish and people to thrive.

Indeed, in the realms of American literature, such superstition is likely to put us in mind of a writer from the previous century, Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose tales (see ‘ The Minister’s Black Veil ’ for one notable example) often tap into collective superstitions and beliefs among small religious communities in America’s Puritan past.

But even more than Hawthorne, we might compare Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ with a couple of other twentieth-century stories. The first is another ‘lottery’ story and perhaps the most notable precursor to Jackson’s: Jorge Luis Borges’ 1941 story ‘ The Lottery in Babylon ’, which describes a lottery which began centuries ago and has been going on ever since. Although this lottery initially began as a way of giving away prizes, it eventually developed so that fines would be given out as well as rewards.

In time, participation in the lottery became not optional but compulsory. The extremes between nice prizes and nasty surprises, as it were, became more pronounced: at one end, a lucky winner might be promoted to a high office in Babylon, while at the other end, they might be killed.

Borges’ story is widely regarded as an allegory for totalitarianism, and it’s worth bearing in mind that it was published during the Second World War. Jackson’s lottery story, of course, was published just three years after the end of the war, when news about the full horrors of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust were only beginning to emerge in full.

Hannah Arendt, whose The Origins of Totalitarianism was published three years after ‘The Lottery’, would later coin the phrase ‘ banality of evil ’ to describe figures like Adolf Eichmann who had presided over the Nazi regime. Such men were not inherently evil, but were aimless and thoroughly ordinary individuals who drifted towards tyranny because they sought power and direction in their lives.

What is Jackson’s story if not the tale of decent and ordinary people collectively taking part in a horrific act, the scapegoating of an individual? Jackson’s greatest masterstroke in ‘The Lottery’ is the sketching in of the everyday details, as though we’re eavesdropping on the inhabitants of a Brueghel painting, so that the villagers strike us as both down-to-earth, ordinary people and yet, at the same time, people we believe would be capable of murder simply because they didn’t view it as such.

These are people who clearly know each other well, families whose children have grown up together, yet they are prepared to turn on one of their neighbours simply because the lottery decrees it. And the villagers may breathe a collective sigh of relief when little Dave, the youngest of the Hutchinson children, reveals his slip of paper to be blank, but Jackson leaves us in no doubt that they would have stoned him if he had been the unlucky victim.

And the other story with which a comparative analysis of ‘The Lottery’ might be undertaken is another tale about the idea of the scapegoat : Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1973 story, ‘ The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas ’. In Le Guin’s story, the inhabitants of a fictional city, Omelas, enjoy happy and prosperous lives, but only because a child is kept in a state of perpetual suffering somewhere in the city. This miserable child is imprisoned and barely kept alive: the price the inhabitants of Omelas willingly pay for their own bliss.

Or is it? One of the intriguing details of Le Guin’s story is whether we are truly in a magical realm where this one child’s suffering makes everyone else’s joy possible, or whether this is merely – as in Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ – what the townspeople tell themselves .

Just as men like Old Warner cannot even countenance the idea of abandoning the lottery (imagine if the crops failed!), the people of Omelas cannot even entertain the notion that their belief in their scapegoat may be founded on baseless superstition. They’re making the child suffer, in other words, for nothing, just as Tessie Hutchinson is sacrificed for nothing: the crops will fail or flourish regardless. There are no winners in Jackson’s lottery: just three hundred losers.

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The Lottery: Essay Topics & Samples

The Lottery is one of those stories that can be interpreted in a million different ways. The author brings up many cultural, social, and even political issues for discussion. It is so controversial that the readers were sending hate mails to Jackson!

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

Did you receive a writing assignment on The Lottery by Shirley Jackson? Have no idea where to start? Don’t panic! Sometimes you can find it hard to decide on one topic when there are so many options. This short story also has many Easter eggs to analyze. Custom-Writing.org experts created this list of the best ideas for the essay and The Lottery essay questions to help you out!

  • 💡 Essay Topics
  • ✒️ Essay Samples

💡 The Lottery: Essay Topics

Don’t know where to start your essay on The Lottery by Shirley Jackson? Check out the prompts to help you write a successful paper!

  • Literary analysis essay on The Lottery by Shirley Jackson . For this task, you would need to work through the main themes of the story . However, to make it easier, you might want to focus on one topic at a time. For instance, write about the role of tradition and how powerful it can be.
  • How are gender roles represented in the story? Look closer to how the roles are divided in this fictional society. There is violence against women, but it doesn’t seem like they are allowed to play victims. Can you catch a glimpse of sexism in some situations? You might as well draw some parallels with the real world.
  • How much do traditions affect our lives? The Lottery as an example . In this analysis essay on The Lottery , you are asked to elaborate on the central theme of the story. Shirley Jackson shows tradition to be so strong and powerful in this society that the rational mind can’t even bring others to reason.
  • Social classes in The Lottery . Are there any characters in the short story that may seem a bit more privileged than the others? All villagers seem to be in the same boat with equal rights. What about Mr. Summers? His name is on the list, and he draws with everybody else, but doesn’t he have more powers?
  • The psychology of the crowd in the short story . You are asked to write an argumentative essay on The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Look for some strong arguments to support the idea. However, there is no need to come up with complicated psychoanalytic theories. Focus on your personal opinion and add some quotes.
  • Hidden symbols in Shirley Jackson’s story . Here, it would help if you worked on literary analysis for a little bit. There are some apparent symbols, such as the black box and the stones. But how many more can you find? For example, look at the importance of households and write a symbolism essay on The Lottery .
  • Investigate the phenomenon of hypocrisy in The Lottery . The villagers can be friendly and kind to their neighbors before the ritual begins . However, as soon as they know the results, they immediately turn against “the winner.” Tessie seems like she would do the same, but when she appears to be the chosen one, it doesn’t please her at all.
  • Tessie Hutchinson as a scapegoat in The Lottery . What can make you think that the main character serves as a scapegoat for the villagers? She might not have a good reputation among them. What do you think drives them to stone her to death? Start a debate on this issue, and don’t forget to use our literature study guide!
  • The significance of names in Shirley Jackson’s story . You might have noticed the specifics of the main characters’ names. For instance, Mr. Summers fits perfectly in the setting of a beautiful summer day. Mr. Delacroix, in his turn, carries some hidden religious meaning if you look up the translation. Can you find any other meaningful names?
  • What is the central message of The Lottery ? You might have thought about it after reading the summary of the short story. Well, there is no specific answer because everything depends on your perspective. It may concern social or political issues or whatever you prefer. It is what makes your essay so unique, isn’t it?

✒️ The Lottery: Essay Samples

Below you’ll find a collection of The Lottery essay examples. You are welcome to use them for inspiration!

  • Point of View in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
  • The Lottery Analysis: Essay on Shirley Jackson’s Short Story
  • The Lottery: Literary Analysis
  • Groupthink Notion in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
  • Gothic Horror in “The Lottery”
  • Foreshadowing in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
  • Crowd Impersonation in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
  • Gender Equality in Jackson’s “The Lottery”
  • Herd Behavior in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
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The Lottery Study Guide

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Essay on If I Win A Lottery

Students are often asked to write an essay on If I Win A Lottery in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on If I Win A Lottery

My feelings.

If I win a lottery, I would feel very happy and excited. It would be like a dream come true. I often think about what I would do with so much money, and it makes me smile.

With the lottery money, I would first help my family. I’d save some for my education and future. I’d also give some to charity to help others who need it.

Being Responsible

Winning a lot of money is a big deal. I would need to be careful and smart about using it. I’d talk to my parents and maybe a money expert to make good choices.

Of course, I’d buy something fun for myself and my friends. Maybe a new bike or video games. It’s okay to enjoy some of the money too!

Winning a lottery would be amazing. I’d feel happy, help my family, give to others, and also enjoy some treats!

Also check:

  • Paragraph on If I Win A Lottery

250 Words Essay on If I Win A Lottery

My dream lottery win.

Imagine waking up one day to find out you have won a lottery. It would be one of the most exciting moments! If I win a lottery, my life would change in many ways. I want to share what I would do with the money.

Helping My Family

Firstly, I would help my family. We could pay off our house loan and buy a new car. My parents work very hard, and I would love to give them a chance to rest. We could also save some money for my education and for my siblings, so we don’t have to worry about school fees.

Giving to Charity

Next, I would give part of the money to people who need it more than me. There are many kids and families who don’t have homes or enough food. I would donate to charities that help these people. It feels good to help others, and with a lot of money, I could help a lot.

Of course, I would also use some of the money to have fun. Maybe I would travel with my family to places we’ve never been, like Disneyland or the beaches in Hawaii. It’s important to enjoy life and make happy memories.

Saving for the Future

Lastly, I would save some money for the future. You never know what might happen, and having savings means you are ready for anything. It would be smart to talk to someone who knows about money to make good choices.

Winning a lottery would be amazing. It would let me help my family, give to others, have fun, and save for what’s ahead. It’s nice to dream about what could happen if I win a lottery one day.

500 Words Essay on If I Win A Lottery

My dream of winning the lottery.

Imagine one day you buy a lottery ticket, and soon after, you find out that you’ve won! This thought has crossed my mind many times. Winning a lottery seems like a dream where all of a sudden, you have a lot of money. What would I do if I were that lucky person? Let me share my dreams and plans with you.

Sharing My Happiness

Firstly, I would want to share my happiness with my family. I would sit down with my parents and decide how to use the money wisely. Maybe we would pay off our house loan or save for my college education. I would also set aside some money for my brother’s or sister’s future. It’s important to make sure my family is taken care of before spending on other things.

Helping Others

After making sure my family is secure, I would think about helping other people. There are many who do not have homes, food, or the chance to go to school. I would like to give some money to charities that help children learn and play, or that make sure people have enough to eat. It feels good to help others, and with the lottery money, I could make a big difference.

I know that it’s important not to spend all the money at once. So, I would save a large part of it in a bank. This way, the money can grow over time, and I can use it in the future for important things like education or even starting my own business.

Having Some Fun

Of course, winning the lottery should also mean having some fun! I would love to travel and see different parts of the world. Learning about new cultures, trying new foods, and making friends from different places would be an amazing experience. I might even take my family on a vacation to a place we’ve always wanted to visit.

Investing in Learning

Education is a powerful tool, and with the lottery money, I could learn so much more. I might sign up for classes that teach me how to paint, play a musical instrument, or speak another language. I believe that investing in learning new things is never a waste.

Being Careful

It’s easy to get carried away when you have a lot of money. I would need to be careful and make smart choices. I would talk to people who know about money, like bankers or financial advisors, to help me make the best decisions. It’s important to think about the long term and not just what I want right now.

Winning the lottery can change a person’s life in many ways. If I were to win, my goals would be to take care of my family, help others, save for the future, have some fun, invest in learning, and be smart with the money. While it’s just a dream, thinking about what I would do with a lottery win helps me understand what’s truly important in life. Whether I win or not, these are good plans to have for any money I might earn or receive.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Gambling Addiction — Research of the Question: Are Lottery Winners Happier

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Research of The Question: Are Lottery Winners Happier

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Published: Feb 9, 2022

Words: 1386 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

  • Apouey, B., & Clark, A. E. (2014). Winning Big but Feeling no Better? The Effect of Lottery Prizes on Physical and Mental Health. Health Economics, 24(5), 516–538. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hec.3035
  • Ariyabuddhiphongs, V. (2010). Lottery Gambling: A Review. Journal of Gambling Studies, 27(1), 15–33. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10899-010-9194-0
  • Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of personality and social psychology, 36(8), 917. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1980-01001-001
  • Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B., & Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319(5870), 1687-1688. Retrieved from https://science.sciencemag.org/content/319/5870/1687.long
  • Dunn, E. W., Gilbert, D. T., & Wilson, T. D. (2011). If money doesn't make you happy, then you probably aren't spending it right. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 21(2), 115-125. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jcps.2011.02.002
  • Gardner, J., & Oswald, A. (2001). Does money buy happiness? A longitudinal study using data on windfalls. Manuscript submitted for publication. Retrieved from https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/ajoswald/marchwindfallsgo.pdf
  • Gardner, J., & Oswald, A. J. (2007). Money and mental wellbeing: A longitudinal study of medium-sized lottery wins. Journal of health economics, 26(1), 49-60. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629606000853
  • Lindqvist, E., Östling, R., & Cesarini, D. (2018). Long-run Effects of Lottery Wealth on Psychological Well-being. NBER Working Paper 24667. Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/papers/w24667
  • Kuhn, P., Kooreman, P., Soetevent, A., & Kapteyn, A. (2011). The Effects of Lottery Prizes on Winners and Their Neighbors: Evidence from the Dutch Postcode Lottery. AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, 101(5). Retrieved from https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.101.5.2226
  • Powdthavee, N. (2010). How much does money really matter? Estimating the causal effects of income on happiness. Empirical Economics, 39(1), 77–92. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00181-009-0295-5

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Student Opinion

Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to 16?

New Jersey’s largest city will allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in school board elections. Would expanding voting rights empower young people and improve our political system?

Breanna Campbell and Nathaniel Esubonteng, in “Vote 16” sweatshirts, are interviewed by a television reporter at Newark City Hall.

By Jeremy Engle

How important is the right to vote — for democracy and for you?

In 1971, the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 from 21. In recent years, campaigns to expand the vote to even younger ages have gained momentum .

In January, Newark’s City Council voted to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local school board races. Supporters hope that the ordinance marks the start of a statewide and national movement.

Does the resolution go too far — or not far enough?

In your opinion, is the current minimum legal voting age of 18 years old fair and appropriate, or should the voting age be lowered? How old do you think people should be to vote in the United States?

In “ In Newark, 16-Year-Olds Win the Right to Vote in School Board Races ,” published on Jan. 10, Tracey Tully writes:

Residents as young as 16 have been granted the right to vote in school board elections in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, beginning in April, after the City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Wednesday lowering the voting age. If implemented, the measure would make Newark the largest community in the United States to expand voting rights to younger residents since 1971, when the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 nationwide. “This would far and away be the most consequential effort to lower the voting age to 16 in the country,” said Andrew Wilkes, chief policy officer at Generation Citizen, a national nonprofit group focused on encouraging young people to participate in democracy. There have been successful efforts to allow younger teenagers to vote in smaller communities in Maryland and Vermont over the past decade. In 2013, Takoma Park, Md. , a 17,000-person suburb of Washington, became the nation’s first city to let 16-year-olds vote in local elections. Last year, Brattleboro, Vt. , lowered its voting age to 16. And in California, residents of Berkeley and Oakland approved referendums in 2016 and 2020 giving 16-year-olds the right to cast ballots in school board elections, but the change has never been implemented . The initiative in Newark, a city 10 miles west of Manhattan where nearly 90 percen t of residents are Black or Latino, is considered a major leap in a nationwide campaign to reinvigorate civics education, encourage greater participation in the democratic process and boost lagging voter turnout.

The article continues:

The City Council approved the resolution after more than two hours of testimony for, and against, lowering the voting age. Most of the people opposed to the new age requirement said students were underprepared to make such crucial decisions, and they urged the city to also bolster its civics curriculum. Newark’s mayor, Ras J. Baraka, a former high school principal, called it a “direct learning experience.” “It’s a training ground and opportunity to prepare young folks to actually engage in larger elections,” Mr. Baraka said in an interview.

However, Ms. Tully writes, the idea of giving 16- and 17-year-olds has its critics:

State Republican leaders panned the effort as nothing more than a cynical attempt to pad the Democratic advantage in New Jersey. Democrats in New Jersey already outnumber registered Republicans by 955,000 voters . “Give me a break,” said Senator Declan O’Scanlon, a Republican who represents Jersey Shore communities. “They’re not ready to make these decisions,” he said of most 16- and 17-year-olds. “They’re not taxpayers.” Representative Grace Meng, a New York Democrat, has introduced legislation in Washington to lower the voting age for all elections nationwide to 16, a proposal that has yet to gain widespread public support. A 2019 poll by Hill-HarrisX found that 75 percent of people surveyed opposed allowing 17-year-olds to vote; 84 percent opposed allowing 16-year-olds to vote.

Students, read the entire article and then tell us:

Should the voting age be lowered to 16? Why or why not? In your view, at what age should people be able to vote in the United States?

What is your reaction to the Newark City Council resolution allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in school board elections? Does it go too far — or not far enough? Do you think the resolution will bolster state and national efforts to lower the voting age?

Mr. Baraka, Newark’s mayor, says that expanding voting rights to younger residents for local elections will provide a “training ground and opportunity to prepare young folks to actually engage in larger elections.” Do you agree? Which arguments in favor of granting the vote to 16-year-olds do you find most convincing?

Critics, however, argue that students are underprepared to make such crucial decisions, and state Republican legislators have panned efforts to expand voting rights as nothing more than an attempt to pad the Democratic advantage in New Jersey. How persuasive are the counterarguments to lowering the voting age?

Nathaniel Esubonteng, a 16-year-old junior at Science Park High School in Newark, says that the City Council resolution means that politicians “will actually have to listen to us.” Will expanding the right to vote to 16-year-olds in local elections, such as for school board, empower young people? Will doing so improve our political system?

Have you been taught civics in school? Do you ever discuss, with your teachers or family, issues facing your community and the country? Do you feel prepared as an informed and active citizen in our democracy? Would having the right to participate in local elections increase your civic engagement?

If you were old enough to vote now, would you? If you are already old enough, have you ever voted? Do you plan to start voting when you turn 18? How important is voting to you?

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.

Jeremy Engle joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2018 after spending more than 20 years as a classroom humanities and documentary-making teacher, professional developer and curriculum designer working with students and teachers across the country. More about Jeremy Engle

National Politics | What to expect in the District of Columbia’s…

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National Politics

National politics | what to expect in the district of columbia’s gop presidential primary.

American and District of Columbia flags fly outside of the...

American and District of Columbia flags fly outside of the Madison Hotel on Feb. 26, 2024, in Washington. Former President Donald Trump and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley lead the field of candidates competing in the District of Columbia’s Republican presidential primary, which will be held Friday through Sunday. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

American and District of Columbia flags fly outside of the...

By ROBERT YOON (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in the nation’s capital will gather in a hotel this weekend and cast their ballots for the GOP presidential candidate they would like to see occupy the White House.

The contest may be the best chance for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley to score a victory in a presidential nomination contest. She and former President Donald Trump, who has won every contest so far, headline the field of candidates competing in the District of Columbia’s Republican presidential primary, which will be held Friday through Sunday.

The event takes place in the run-up to Super Tuesday, when 15 states will hold Republican presidential contests on March 5, the most of any day on the primary calendar.

At stake in Washington are the city’s 19 delegates to this summer’s Republican National Convention, where the party’s nominee will officially be crowned. Haley, a former South Carolina governor, pledged to remain in the race after losing her home-state primary last Saturday.

This Friday, the first day of voting in the District of Columbia, Haley will hold an event with the D.C. Republican Party at the primary’s lone polling location, a hotel in the heart of downtown. The party says she is the sixth GOP presidential hopeful it has hosted this campaign season.

The district’s party-run Republican presidential contests tend to have a looser, more festive atmosphere than the typically staid environment of a state- or city-run election, where electioneering is banned within a certain distance from the polling site. At the 2016 vote, which was held in conjunction with the local party’s convention, voters faced long lines but were able to pass the time browsing tables of political and campaign merchandise before casting their ballots.

Washington is one of the most heavily Democratic jurisdictions in the nation. Democrat Joe Biden won the district in the 2020 general election with 92% of the vote.

A look at what to expect on election night:

PRIMARY DAY

The party-run Republican presidential primary will be held over three days, starting Friday and concluding Sunday. Voting concludes Sunday at 7 p.m.

WHAT’S ON THE BALLOT

In addition to Haley and Trump, the candidates on the ballot are Florida businessman David Stuckenberg and former candidates Ryan Binkley, Doug Burgum, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy.

WHO GETS TO VOTE

Only voters registered in the district as Republicans may participate in the primary. The deadline to register was Feb. 16.

DELEGATE ALLOCATION RULES

All of Washington’s 19 GOP delegates will be awarded to the candidate who receives more than 50% of the primary vote. If no candidate wins a vote majority, delegates will be allocated in proportion to the overall primary vote. Candidates must receive at least 15% of the vote to qualify for delegates.

DECISION NOTES

The state party is expected to announce the final vote results and the winner of the primary within an hour or so of polls closing on Sunday night. The Associated Press’ winner call will be based on the state party’s announcement. Unlike other elections, there will not be partial vote results to analyze over the course of the night.

WHAT DO TURNOUT AND ADVANCE VOTE LOOK LIKE

As of Jan. 31, there were about 23,000 registered Republicans in the city. Turnout in most of the district’s Republican primaries tends to be relatively low. At the party’s 2016 presidential vote, slightly more than 2,800 votes were cast. About 5,100 votes were cast in the 2012 primary and 6,200 in the 2008 primary.

Early voting is not permitted in the primary. Absentee voting is also not permitted, except for military and overseas voters. The state party says only two voters requested a military or overseas mail ballot in the 2016 primary.

HOW LONG DOES VOTE-COUNTING USUALLY TAKE?

There is only one polling location in the primary, the Madison Hotel. The state party is expected to announce a final result within an hour or so after voting concludes.

ARE WE THERE YET?

As of Sunday, there will be 134 days until the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and 247 until the November general election.

More in National Politics

Michigan's GOP Convention Convenes To Award Presidential Delegates

National Politics | Donald Trump wins Missouri caucuses. Michigan and Idaho Republicans will also weigh in on 2024 race

Here’s what to know, even though there may not be much mystery in who will win.

National Politics | Idaho Republican presidential caucus is Saturday. Here’s how it works, what to know

Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson.

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National politics | some members of congress not sweating reelection this year.

The Missouri Republican Party will hold presidential caucuses on Saturday, offering voters their only chance to weigh in on who should represent the party on the presidential ballot.

National Politics | What to expect in Missouri’s GOP caucuses

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