Lowering the voting age?

25th November, 2008 by Webmaster

Many reasons are offered for lowering the voting age, and previous reports have analysed and presented these reasons in the context of either being for or against any proposed changes. The latest Report entitled ‘Making Your Mark’ by the Youth Citizens Commission – formed by the Ministry of Justice – will end the consultation stage on the 20th January next year and the initial findings have made for some interesting reading. The talk of extending the voting ‘franchise’ is very much based around the sociological implications of such a move, however it still wrestles with the blunt question that is on a lot of peoples minds when it comes to the issue – why bother?

At one point the report seems to suggest it would be worth implementing votes for 16 and 17 year olds even though it might prove to be ineffectual. A strong argument for the case of bringing in votes for 16 and 17 year olds is that it will engage people at a critical point in their development within society and therefore instil a voting habit in them that will last throughout their life, but in this lies the very problem – its based around a theory of idealism and predictability of human nature based on that idealism. The report suggests that as 16 and 17 year olds are largely interested in participation in ‘low’ political events such as protests and debates, they would automatically be more inspired to participate in the electoral process. However my response would be that with the current figures of participation in the 18-24 year age group only reaching 37%, isn’t there an inherent problem of translating political interest to political activity that stretches beyond simply the ‘right to vote’ as there is not a massive gap between 16 and 18 in terms of age and development?

I suppose I can only speak from a personal point of view, but at 16 although I was politically aware and moved to develop allegiances and opinions based around me by world events (in my case 9/11 being the prime political mover of the time) I still saw the vote as something to obtain through a right of passage to adulthood that awaited me. In that scenario I suppose we can view an interest in ‘low’ politics (such as protests and local political organisation) being just as important as the enfranchisement we should expect to obtain at 18 in any democratic and free society. In this respect I suppose waiting for the right to vote made it even more valuable. Of course the problem with this argument is that not everyone was as politically aware as I was at a young age, so in that case why would they bother to vote anyway? There would still be a massive shortfall in the amount of votes actually cast by 16 year olds. This in itself leads to the question ‘Why would they vote at any age?’ and as such what can be do as a society to make sure people should always have a reason to vote at any age.

No matter how many times we raise this debate over voting ages, voting participation will only increase when the electorate feels more connected with the democracy they are part of. This would be the case for someone with the potential to vote at 16, as it would be the case for someone at the age of 64. Due to the bureaucratic nightmare that would follow expanding the electorate, I would suggest any proposed change to the voting age be held off until we have seen a sustained increase in the amount of people currently taking part in elections at both the local and the national level. This increase will be brought about both through ‘high’ and ‘low’ political changes. Firstly, the parties in Parliament have a duty to make their members more representative of their communities in terms of gender and ethnic history if ethnicity is a concern of a constituency at hand. In terms of local changes, we need to make voter registration easier and make political parties a source for social interaction in the community as well as political activism.

Undoubtedly as political participation increases, more citizens at a younger age will not simply ‘like’ the idea of having a vote, but demand it. When that happens, they will be out on the street and making their voices heard. Our country works best and has always got its most vital changes in the Voting Franchise when that is the scenario played out. In the mean time, lets fix whats already broken.

Tags: votes at 16