Modern campaigns for suffrage: votes at 16

Votes at 16 (campaign)

• Campaign to lower the voting age to 16 for all elections

• 2001 - founded

• Coalition led by the British Youth Council - includes ERS, Labour, Greens and Libdems

British Youth Council (BYC)

• Coordinated the Votes at 16 campaign

• Promotes youth participation in politics

Electoral Reform Society (ERS)

• Campaigns for broader democratic reform

• Involved in supporting Votes at 16 and related access to voting

National Union of Students

• Campaigns for votes at 16

• #GenerationVote

Adopt a Peer

• Votes at 16 campaign tactic to encourage members to contact and lobby specific Lords in Parliament

Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Act 2016

• Act reducing the voting age to 16 for Scottish Parliament elections (2016) and to 16 for local elections (2017)

Scottish independence referendum (2014) voting age and turnout

• 16‑ and 17‑year‑olds could vote in the 2014 referendum; turnout among young voters was notably high

Welsh Senedd voting age 16 (2020)

• Welsh Parliament (Senedd) extended the voting age to 16 for Senedd elections (implemented by 2020)

2025

• 16 and 17 year olds given the right to vote by the Labour government