Question: You say that you think youth should be able to vote at 16, as the voter turnout percentage drops as age decreases will this give a useful representation and what would you do to try and increase the vote turnout of young people?
Asked by leachr87 to Di on 5 Oct 2010 in Categories: Youth issues.
Comments
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Marion
commented on 6 Oct 2010: I think that people don’t vote because they don’t think it will make any difference to the way things are. If more young people understood how important it is for them to have a voice and be listened to I think they would be more inclined to vote. We need to show young people that they ARE listened to and we WILL try and follow up on their concerns.
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Len
commented on 10 Oct 2010: Dear leachr87. What an enormous topic, this could be the one to sort them out. I think Di is wrong. I don’t agree that dropping the age of voting to 16 is a particularly good idea, not because “16 year olds don’t know anything” or “don’t know their own minds” [comments heard from others] we both know 16 year olds are very centred on their lives and contacts, with a fresh way of looking at the world [I remember being 16 very well]. The age for voting is set at 18 for a number of reasons; you can’t join the forces under 18 without your parent’s consent, if you did join the forces under the age of 18 you cannot be sent to a war zone. If you are an apprentice under 18 yrs you cannot be sent away from home to work, under 18’s cannot marry without their parents consent, and the list goes on. Legally you are not an adult until you are 18, so it makes sense to fix the age of voting at 18, if we wanted it lowered then all these other things would have to change, would you really want to see that happen?? And besides how would you explain to a 15 year old why he/she can’t vote. Do you think Politicians ignore 16 year olds? I can assure you they do not, why? because 16 year olds will vote in two years when they reach 18.
Increasing the interest in politics is the big issue right now; I think our officials should look at other more modern ways of voting. Lets take a page out of “The X factor” rule book, if we can make our Politicians more interesting and have everyone vote in an X factor way say by text or online, that would be a start. What do you think??
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The actual turnout of voters has generally decreased locally and nationally in recent years but this does not mean that the right to vote and access to vote should not be avalable to anyone classed as being a responsible age and I do believe that this is 16.We have to more responsive to voters and more creative in the way in which people have access to vote.For example, on line voting or press button voting is a way in which people seem to want to vote.With young people , as with any voter, they will only engage with the process if it is relevent to them and we will only do this if we ask the right questions and put forward policies and ideas that they can support and want to see happen. It will not be easy but it is the responsibility of the candidates putting themselves forward for elaction to motivate and encourage young and older people to vote and to get involved in their local communities.
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