I applaud Madolyn Roy for her initiative and well-written argument in favor of lowering the voting age for Maine’s state and local elections (“Lower the voting age for the good of Maine”). However, her suggestion that science supports her argument does not appear to me to be correct.

Ms. Roy mentions unspecified studies describing “cold” versus “hot” skills development (she may be referring to high-order thinking skills) pointing out that “cold” thinking skills are fully developed early on, which in her words “…means they can come to well thought out conclusions before acting.”

This is contradicted by, among others, Johnson, Blum and Giedd (“Adolescent Maturity: The Promise and Pitfalls of Neuroscience Research in Adolescent Health Policy”), who point out frontal lobe development of the brain may not be complete until the middle of the third decade of life. The frontal lobe is where logic, reasoning and, perhaps most important, impulse control take place.

One might conclude from “the science” that we should reverse course and raise the voting age.

Michael Smith
Wells