Extension of the franchise - votes at 16

Franchise

• Right to vote in elections

Age of majority

• Legal age at which a person is recognised as an adult in law, with corresponding rights and responsibilities

Votes at 16 Coalition

• Group pressing to lower the voting age to 16

  • Includes:

  • Electoral Reform Society

  • Labour

  • Green

  • SNP

For votes at 16: 16–17 turnout in the Scottish referendum

• 16–17-year-olds had higher turnout than 18–24-year-olds

  • 75% to 54%

For votes at 16: Austria

• Youth that vote in Austria are well-informed about who they’re voting for as they have made a conscious decision to vote, due to the importance of the matter to them

For votes at 16: youth councils political engagement

• 20,000+ youths active in councils

• Over 600 elected Members of Youth Parliament

For votes at 16: parental support

• Most 16/17 year olds still live with their parents, increasing the likelihood of them using their vote

For votes at 16: David Linden MP

• Young people pay tax for the govt to spend it, yet they can’t influence that choice in spending

For votes at 16: pre-existing political activism

• Heavy youth involvement in BLM and environmental causes

For votes at 16: education

• Citizenship involvement in PSHE since 2002 means young people are more equipped to make better political decisions

For votes at 16: blurred age of majority

• Youth can do a lot yet are still regarded as not mature enough to vote

  • Sex

  • Marry

  • Pay tax and NI

  • Join the armed forces

  • Leave education to train or work 20+ hours a week

For votes at 16: youth interests

• Youth vote would mean their views and interests would no longer be marginalised and ignored

  • E.g. greater attention to education and drugs policy

• Currently due to high turnout in elderly people, their views are more represented in policies, yet the youth don’t have the opportunity to turn out in the first place and so cannot have thier interests listened to

For votes at 16: inconsistent cut-off age and comparison to adults

• 16/17 year olds can be active in youth councils but cannot vote, even though politically ignorant and poorly educated adults can

• 16/17 year olds may vote as a joke/copy friends/vote just ‘because they can’/vote on a single issue

  • Many adults do the same, yet because they are older, they are deemed more sensible. Why do 2 years make a difference?

• Adults don’t have formal political education, why should we have to?

For votes at 16: The Economist opinion

• Show that youth’s opinions matter

• Youth are the ones bearing the brunt of policies - climate change, pensions

• Allows initiation of citizens in civic life

• Guarantee supply of young voters to preserve democracy

Against votes at 16: immaturity

• 16–18-year-olds may lack political knowledge or maturity to participate responsibly in elections

  • E.g. may vote as a joke, copy friends, vote just ‘because they can’, or vote on a single issue

• Lots of things that you can do at 16 require parental permission

  • Join the armed forces

  • Marry

• Can’t: buy harmful items like knives, glue, alcohol and cigarettes

Against votes at 16: life experience maturity (age argument)

• People should be voting in their twenties or later after gaining experience, paying taxes, and developing independent thinking

Against votes at 16: referred representation

• Young people's political representation is not permanently denied but is delayed until they reach adulthood

Against votes at 16: participation crisis

• Declining civic engagement and turnout, especially among young voters

• Youth may vote, but wouldn’t challenge the govt to respond to their demands like old people do

Against votes at 16: tax

• Most 16/17 year olds are not in work enough to pay tax due to full-time education and so don’t have the same stake in society as those older than them

Against votes at 16: childhood

• This would erode the notion of childhood for adolescents

• Voting is an adult responsibility and UN Convention on the Rights of a Child counts those under 18 as children

• Cannot buy alcohol or cigarettes (seen as harmful) so why should you exercise the adult responsibility of voting?

Against votes at 16: education

• Politics is not mandatory in schools

• ‘Citizenship’ doesn’t cover parties and their manifestos, which most youth are not aware of

Against votes at 16: impressionability

• Most 16/17 year olds still live with their parents due to being in full-time education, and therefore can be swayed by their opinions

• Youth are swayed by opinions shared on social media and other unreliable sources, such as friends, or malintentioned people

  • You don’t learn critical thinking skills in school until A-Level/University, especially relating to reliablity of sources