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Votes at 16 - Parliamentary event
January 10th 2006
BRIEFING FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
What's it all about?
There is a Bill passing through Parliament that could change the law so that 16 and 17 year-olds can vote in all public elections. If successful, young people could take part in elections for:
Local councillors
Members of Parliament and the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies
Members of the European Parliament
The Mayor of London (for those that live in London).
The Bill is called the Electoral Administration Bill. The Government Minister in charge of the Bill is called Harriet Harman MP. She says the Government is open-minded about the issue and she will be coming to the January 10th event to hear your views.
Why should 16 and 17 year-olds get the vote?
Many youth-led organisations have been campaigning for many years for a change in the law. We believe young people who have finished their compulsory education should have the right to vote.
Some useful facts:
Sixteen and 17 year-olds can get a job and pay taxes, they can get married or enter a civil partnership, join the army and serve a prison sentence.
Most school leavers have had 11 years formal education, which now includes four years of citizenship education (introduced as a statutory subject in secondary schools in 2002).
Young people of any age can now join school governors' committees to help in the running of their schools, and headteachers must encourage pupil participation.
From the age of 16, a young person is presumed competent to consent to or refuse medical treatment.
35% of the UK's 175,000 young carers (those looking after a disabled or sick relative) are aged 16 and 17.
Young people have access to information that even a decade ago would have been unimaginable - with 24 hour news, dedicated youth programmes and Internet and mobile phones all making access quicker and easier.
School councils, youth councils and youth parliaments have the official backing of all political parties.
Young people are involved in public life like never before - from advising local councils and Government Ministers to taking part in European and UN summits.
There is growing support for votes at 16 in the Houses of Parliament. In the Commons, Stephen Williams' 10-minute rule bill (a short debate on a Bill drafted by an MP) last year was almost passed, losing by just eight votes; and Lord Lucas' Bill passed through the Lords with little opposition.
The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, the Mayor of London, and many children's and youth charities support law reform.
In October 2005, a UK prisoner successfully brought a case to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that the blanket exclusion of all convicted prisoners from the right to vote is a breach of article 3 of protocol no. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court said that voting is a right, not a privilege.
The Electoral Commission's public consultation on the voting age found that 72% of respondents favour a voting age of 16. The consultation attracted huge participation, including from nearly 8,000 young people. Unfortunately, because there was overwhelming support for the voting age to be lowered, the Electoral Commission carried out another, much smaller, poll (about 1200 people). It was worried the responses were skewed and that the votes at 16 campaign had influenced people (if only we could have been that organised!) Still, most people supported a voting age somewhere during a person's 17th year. However, the Commission then asked a very leading question - `If the choice came down to it, do you think the minimum voting age should be lowered to 16 years or kept at its present 18 years' - and most of the 1200 people said they would stick with the law as it is.
Top five myths about votes at 16
*Young people are too stupid and immature to vote
How insulting is that. After 11 years of formal education, in the world's fourth richest country, of course young people are ready to vote. Two things to remember - first, voting is not compulsory so only those who are interested will use their right (just like adults) and second, there is no test for adult voters. Anyone over the age of 18 can vote (besides convicted prisoners, and that may change too), no matter what their views or interest in politics.
*Young people will be pressurised by their friends and family
People who study voting patterns have shown that the biggest influence on adult voting habits is the way their parents vote. So adults are influenced too! When Lord Lucas was asked whether young people would be bullied by their parents, his response was `Has anyone ever tried bullying a 16 year-old? ' The teenage years are known for being a time when young people question the attitudes and views of their parents. Who knows, lowering the voting age could lead to teenagers changing the views of parents!
*No other country in Europe allows 16 and 17 year-olds to vote
Well, not in national elections but remember we were the first in Europe to reduce the voting age from 21 to 18 years - and other countries (including the United States) soon copied. Young people in Germany have been able to vote in local elections for several years, and Vienna has recently experimented. What a surprise - young people were the group most likely to use their vote!
*You'll be asking for votes for babies next
Not quite. We think 16 is a good age to have the right to vote because it marks the end of compulsory education and it is the age supported by nearly three-quarters of those responding to the Electoral Commission's consultation in 2003.
*If young people get voting rights they will lose protective rights
That's just not true. The Convention on the Rights of the Child applies to everyone under the age of 18. Young people will not lose any of these rights just because you can vote. There will still be laws to protect you - relating to protection from violence, education and getting into trouble for example. This is not about saying 16 year-olds are adults - it is simply saying young people have human rights too, and they should not be kept out of elections in a democracy.
What people have said about votes at 16
Get ready!
Use this space to jot down some notes for the event.
What do you want to say to the Minister and other Parliamentarians?
What do you think are the biggest reasons for votes at 16?
Like all of us, I have visited many schools and colleges during, and in between, elections. I have always been impressed by the penetrating and incisive questions and by the open way in which ideas are debated. Contrast that with a typical wet evening during an election when one meets someone on the doorstep who has no time, is not interested, would rather be watching the television, or offers an opinion that they say is fact but actually matches what they read in the newspapers that morning.
Stephen Williams, Bristol West MP (Liberal Democrat)
One of the most significant changes, to my mind, is the introduction of a citizenship curriculum in schools, so that children will go out into the world knowing something of what their rights and opportunities are in a world of democratic politics. It will be a little strange to say to those kids, "We can teach you about it before 16 but you haven't actually got any rights to exercise and get involved in these things until you are 18". That misses a tremendous opportunity.
Lord Lucas (Conservative)
I give five reasons why people should be able to vote at 16, the first of which concerns equality of expression. Not letting 16 and 17-year-olds express their political views through the ballot box gives the impression that we do not really care about what they have to say, and that their views are not valid. That clearly is not right. Sixteen and 17-year olds already play a very important part in their communities and in their work. The second reason is consistency. As we all know, 16-year-olds can pay taxes, join the Army, leave home, get married and claim social security benefits—so why should they not be allowed to vote?
The third reason concerns citizenship. The Labour Government introduced citizenship classes into secondary schools, so that all children up to the age of 16 can learn why citizenship is important and why they should have a role in the civic life of their community. It is therefore ridiculous that on reaching 16—just when we have learned why we should get involved in such matters—we have to wait two years to exercise our right to vote. The fourth reason concerns the moral right to vote. As politicians, we make decisions about young people all the time, and by not allowing them to express their views about us, we are doing them a great disservice. Here, we should also remember the principle of no taxation without representation.
I turn now to the question of raising turnout. When the Electoral Commission examined lowering the voting age to 16, it said that one problem is that if we did so it would reduce turnout even further. I have with me a report of a local election held in Vienna on Sunday, at which 16 and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote for the first time. The turnout of 16 and 17-year-olds was higher than that of other age groups, particularly 18 to 34-year-olds.
Diana Johnson MP (Labour)
The last time the voting age was reduced was in 1970, from 21 to 18 years.