This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of Democratic Audit. Should the UK lower the voting age to 16? Observers of the reform noted that it came about because of a deal whereby the SPÖ agreed to introduce absentee voting (Briefwahl), which was proposed by its coalition partner, the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), in exchange for a decrease in the voting age. Explain your answer? This has implications for policy-makers and contributes to an evidence-based debate about youth political engagement and electoral turnout. The youngest group (16- to 17-year-olds) even exhibits the highest level of trust in the government to be responsive. Today, there is no reason for a further change. [36][37] [49]Further, in most states, 16-year-olds can be emancipated from their parents and live independently. People legally become adults at 18. At the local level, two towns councils in Maryland voted to lower the voting age to 16 and in one of those two towns, the 16 to 18 demographic outvoted all other age groups in the next election. This informed the decision of Scotland to lower its legal voting age to 16 from 18. [27] According to the United States Elections Project’s analysis of US Census Bureau data, just 16% of eligible voters ages 18-29 voted in the 2014 election, compared to 30% for ages 30-44, 43% for 45-59, and 55% for age 60 and up. [40], A Twitter poll by WJLA, the ABC news affiliate in Washington, DC, found just 18% support for a proposed bill to lower the voting age to 16 in the District of Columbia, compared to 77% against. First, looking at official records from five elections (local, regional and national), we find that adolescent voters (16- to 17-year-olds) show relatively high turnout rates, on average. These lowering the voting age to 16 pros and cons must balance the rights of the individual with the needs of each nation. Mandatory National Service – Should the United States Have Mandatory National Service? The Kamloops, B.C., student says that 16-year-olds are mature enough to make their own opinions. [2], Currently, Berkeley, California, and a handful of cities in Maryland allow 16-year-olds to participate in local elections. Principles, process and party politics. [34] Sofie Whitney, a survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, says, “If 16-year-old students are old enough to be affected by the laws, and realize that there is a problem, then they should have the power to help change it.” [35], The age of 16 is when people’s relationship with the law changes as they often start driving, working, and paying taxes. [1] Student activism in the wake of the Feb. 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, brought new life to the debate about letting younger people vote in elections. [31], David Davenport, JD, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, said, “My concern is if 16-year-olds were allowed to vote on any kind of broad scale, what we’d actually be doing is bringing the least politically informed, the least politically experienced, the least mature in terms of making long-term judgments and trade-offs, directly into and potentially affecting our voter turnout and results.” [32], A 2019 Hill-HarrisX poll found that 84% of registered voters opposed lowering the voting age to 16. How well does the UK’s democracy protect human rights and civil liberties? Evidence for the First-Time Voting Boost among 16- to 25-Year-Olds in Austria," Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties, Oct. 2014, Amy Linimon and Mark Joslyn, "Trickle Up Political Socialization: The Impact of Kids Voting USA on Voter Turnout in Kansas," State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Mar. By ensuring that young people can vote while still in school, the act will become a habit. The 2019 version of this is if 16 year olds pay tax, they should have a say in where that tax goes. Every age group in the poll was against lowering the voting age to 16 or 17, though younger respondents were more supportive than older participants. [44] President Eisenhower called for citizens ages 18 to 21 to be included in the political process in his 1954 State of the Union address. And 16-year-olds can vote in Austria, Brazil, parts of Germany, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Nicaragua, and parts of Switzerland. Recreational Marijuana – Should Recreational Marijuana Be Legal? Our study on the Austrian case provides a comprehensive and medium-term assessment of political involvement among adolescent voters aged 16–17. Lowering local election voting age to 16 in major cities, in conjunction with the integration of civics classes in school, has been gaining support as a tenable way to boost turnout. [20][21], 16-year-olds are learning about government and civics in high school, and the structured environment would lead to higher turnout among 16- and 17-year-olds as teachers and parents help them overcome typical obstacles for first-time voters, such as the registration process and finding their polling places. Liam Christy is 17 and recently brought a petition to lower the voting age to his local MLA. These findings generally corroborate earlier evidence reported by Zeglovits and Aichholzer. The argument for this was if 18 year olds are old enough to fight in war, they should be able to vote. A new study shows constituencies where young people aged 16 and 17 outnumber the sitting MP’s majority Several countries have had at least some experiences with lowering the voting age. Lowering the voting age to 16 would "show young people that we hear them, we care about their opinions and we are working for their future," the 23-year-old WA senator said. The idea behind this was that eighteen-year-olds are able to fight for their country but not able to decide who represents them. Why or why not. By … 2004, Eric Plutzer, "Becoming a Habitual Voter: Inertia, Resources, and Growth in Young Adulthood," American Political Science Review, Mar. Her research focuses on political behaviour, electoral research, democratic representation, political participation and quantitative methods. (2020, September 30). Illegal Immigration – What Are the Solutions to Illegal Immigration in America? Analysing Persistence in Turnout," jstor.org, Jan. 2009, Daniel Hart and James Youniss, Renewing Democracy in Young America, 2017, Mark N. Franklin, Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Electoral Competition in Established Democracies since 1945, Apr. Arguments against lowering the voting age to 16. How effective are the Commons’ two committee systems at scrutinising government policy-making. [2] San Francisco, California, residents will vote in Nov. 2020 whether to allow 16 year olds to vote. Lowering the voting age to 16 could change the winner in 88 seats, ONS analysis shows. 44% of 18 to 24 year olds voted in the 2010 general election compared with 76% of the over 65s. TRENDING: Exclusive: The TCF Center Election Fraud – Newly Discovered Video Shows Late Night Deliveries of Tens of Thousands of Illegal Ballots 8 Hours After Deadline ‘Squad’ member Pressley says she’s ‘shocked’ that lowering voting age to 16 is polarizing issue. Scotland recently lowered its voting age, and teens in Brazil, Austria, Cuba, Argentina, and Ecuador can also head to the polls. Austria has for about a decade allowed 16-year-olds to vote in most countrywide elections. Theirs was an early salvo in a movement that would end in 1971 with the ratification of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18 from 21. Our aim was to comprehensively assess the policy’s impact from a medium-term perspective by also taking into account potential contextual factors between elections. Moreover, civic and citizenship education was implemented as a mandatory cross-curricular educational principle. Overall, first-time voters (aged 16–20) are also quite satisfied with the way democracy works, as do much older cohorts (70+ years old; see Figure 1 below). Death Penalty – Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed? The voting age was changed once before, in 1970, when Congress lowered it from 21 to 18. Lowering the voting age to 16 would do the same. Here’s why. Sixteen- and 17-year olds can drive in most states, work and pay taxes on their income, and are sometimes tried in adult courts. A … [24][25] Turnout among 16- and 17-year-olds in Takoma Park, Maryland, the first US municipality to lower the voting age for local elections, was double that of eligible voters 18 and older. [13][14][15][16] Most are still living at home and would be influenced by the voting choices of their parents. In the UK, voting for 16- and 17-year-olds has been introduced for devolved elections in Scotland and, more recently, in Wales. In some parts of the United Kingdom, 16 and 17-year-olds can already vote – such as in Scottish parliament and local elections. Currently, all the opposition parties in Parliament back the idea of adding 1.5 million teenagers to the electorate by lowering the voting age to 16. [11][10][12], Social scientists Tak Wing Chan, PhD, and Matthew Clayton, DPhil, say that 16- and 17-year-olds wouldn’t be competent voters because “research in neuroscience suggests that the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, is still undergoing major reconstruction and development during the teenage years,” and added that the prefrontal cortex is what “enables us to weigh dilemmas, balance trade-offs and, in short, make reasonable decisions in politics.” [11], People under 18 are subject to different labor, contract, and criminal responsibility laws, and aren’t allowed to join the military without parental consent or serve on a jury. 2002, Eva Zeglovits and Julian Aichholzer, "Are People More Inclined to Vote at 16 Than at 18? For this, we rely on records from electoral lists as well as large-sample survey data by the 2013 and 2017 Austrian National Election Study (AUTNES) to compare 16- and 17-year-olds to cohorts of older voters. For the first time in German history, 16- and 17-year-olds will be able to cast ballots in a state election on Sunday. This is the conclusion reached by the “Wählen ab 16” (“Voting from 16”) study conducted by the Bertelsmann Stiftung. Raised to 21?," lehighvalleylive.com, Feb. 27, 2018, WJLA Staff, "A New Bill Is Being Proposed in D.C. That Would Lower Voting Age to 16," wjla.com, Apr. [18] A person who votes in one election has a 13% greater probability of voting in a future election. 26, 2018, Hannah Grabenstein, "Should 16-Year-Olds Be Allowed to Vote?," pbs.org, Apr. In a new book chapter, Julian Aichholzer and Sylvia Kritzinger answer this question by looking at a decade of empirical evidence from Austria, where voting at 16 was introduced for national elections in 2007. Sylvia Kritzinger is Professor of Methods in the Social Sciences at the Department of Government at the University of Vienna. And if 16 year olds work, they pay tax. 2, 2018, Markus Wagner, et al., "Voting at 16: Turnout and the Quality of Vote Choice," Electoral Studies, June 2012, Mori Social Research Institute, "Young People's Attitudes Towards Politics," ipsos.com, July 2003, Tak Wing Chan and Matthew Clayton, "Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to Sixteen? [8], Austria lowered the voting age to 16 in 2007. 18, 2018, Jocelyn Benson and Michael T. Morley, "Common Interpretation: The Twenty-Sixth Amendment," constitutioncenter.org (accessed Nov. 1, 2018), History.com Editors, "The 26th Amendment," history.com (accessed Nov. 1, 2018), National Archives, "Document for March 23rd: 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 1, 2018), NCC Staff, "Just Which State Ratified the 26th Amendment?," constitutioncenter.org, June 30, 2017, Maggie Astor, "16-Year-Olds Want a Vote. 1, 2018, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, "Solid Turnout for 16 and 17 Year Old Voters in Takoma Park, MD," naspa.org (accessed Nov. 1, 2018), United States Census Bureau, "Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2014: Reported Voting and Registration, by Sex and Single Years of Age: November 2014," census.gov, July 2015, Emily Guskin, "Are Young Voters Going to Sway the Midterms? 2002, Jens Olav Dahlgaard, "The Surprising Consequence of Lowering the Voting Age,” washingtonpost.com, Mar. 10, 2018, WJLA Web Staff, "Bill Lowering Voting Age to 16 Proposed in D.C.," mynbc15.com, Apr. At 16, most people’s living arrangements are pretty stable as they are less likely to leave their community in the middle of high school. However, over time these young voters became more interested in politics and electoral campaigns, with results that are similar to the population average in 2017. However, at least in 2017, 16- to 17-year-old voters seemed to have a below average probability to vote ‘correctly’, i.e., they are less likely to vote for a party that is closest in ideological terms to their own views. In turn, the turnout level of 16- and 17-year-olds even approaches that of the total electorate. In general, we also find, in-keeping with expectations, that party attachment (i.e., feeling close to a specific party) is generally higher among older voters, although the rates among all first-time voters (16–17 and 18–20 year-olds) have become more similar to each other over time.
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