Death Penalty – Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed? It is also worth mentioning that the voting age reform in Austria was accompanied by several measures for the youngest voters, such as awareness-raising campaigns. 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. Illegal Immigration – What Are the Solutions to Illegal Immigration in America? 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. Do our results thus already indicate ‘voting at 16’ to be the ‘new normal’ after the 2007 voting age reform? All rights reserved. How effective are the Commons’ two committee systems at scrutinising government policy-making. As Jo Saglie has pointed out in Democratic Audit, 16- and 17-year-olds voted more than 18- to 21-year-olds but less than the total electorate: Enfranchising 16- and 17-year-olds might therefore reduce overall turnout at first. Here’s why. They Were Just Getting Warmed Up.," thinkprogress.org, May 29, 2018, Eric Zorn, "It's Only Logical — 16-Year-Olds Should Have the Right to Vote," chicagotribune.com, Apr. Are UK elections conducted with integrity, with sufficient turnout? Julian Aichholzer is a Post-Doc researcher at the Department of Government at the University of Vienna and is affiliated with the Austrian National Election Study (AUTNES). Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). The argument for this was if 18 year olds are old enough to fight in war, they should be able to vote. Mandatory National Service – Should the United States Have Mandatory National Service? Lowering the Voting Age – Top 3 Pros and Cons. 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. This needs to change: The federal voting age in the United States should be lowered from 18 to 16. A … Looking at whether young citizens feel able to take an active role in politics, all first-time voters exhibit similar values as older voters, but, perhaps surprisingly, adolescent voters start their political career with a more optimistic picture of how politics works. Czechoslovakia was the first country to lower their lowest voting age to 20 in 1964, after which more than 15 countries lowered their voting age too. The 2019 version of this is if 16 year olds pay tax, they should have a say in where that tax goes. … If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it. Liam Christy is 17 and recently brought a petition to lower the voting age to his local MLA. School Uniforms – Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms? Lowering the voting age to 16 would do the same. Rather, they show that adolescents play an active part in political life, if they are allowed to. 50 years later, 18 years had become the lowest voting age, and it is effective to date. Medical Marijuana – Should Marijuana Be a Medical Option? A key reason to lower the voting age to 16 is that it can actually create lifelong voters. In its 2011 local elections, the voting age was lowered to 16 in 21 municipalities. ], [Editor’s Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. In the UK, voting for 16- and 17-year-olds has been introduced for devolved elections in Scotland and, more recently, in Wales. From the 1990s to the present, elected officials in several US states have made unsuccessful attempts to lower the voting age to 16, and sometimes even younger. [43] A debate over lowering it to 18 began during World War II when President Franklin D. Roosevelt decreased the military draft age to 18. Parliamentary select committees: who gives evidence? Politicians, campaigners and political pundits have frequently put forward the idea of lowering the voting age to counter decreasing levels of electoral turnout especially among young voters. Gun Control – Should More Gun Control Laws Be Enacted? Figure 1: Satisfaction with democracy among different age groups in Austria. It is safe to say that the 2017 elections showed a greater level of politicisation and high salience that might have strongly mobilised all voters, young and old alike, resulting also in an increase in turnout. Only small minority would support lowering voting age to 16 The voting age referendum is one of a raft that will be put to the public in the coming years. In turn, the turnout level of 16- and 17-year-olds even approaches that of the total electorate. [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. [17], Only 12.5% of 18-year-olds participated in the 2014 midterm election, compared to 42% of the general population. Overall, the level of turnout is generally higher among 16- to 17-year-olds (compared to 18- to 20-year-olds) and similar to the electorate’s average (and here in particular amongst the 16-year-olds), as evidenced by official records from electoral lists. [42], © 2020 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Voting at 16 when politics is still discussed at school/college may get them into the habit of voting. Explain your answer? It draws on their chapter entitled “Voting at 16 in practice: A review of the Austrian case” which appeared in: Eichhorn, Jan & Bergh, Johannes (eds.) Why or why not. 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. The poll found every age group was against 16-year-olds voting, with the most support found among those under 35 where still only 39% were in favor. [48], A constitutional amendment to lower the US voting age to 16 would require approval from two-thirds of both houses of Congress and three-fourths of the state legislatures (38 states). At 18, many young people moving from one community to another. Because of the habitual nature of voting, 16 is a better age to introduce voting. Why or why not? However, with the two groups becoming more alike in the subsequent election, the picture turned positive again in 2017. 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. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., on Thursday said she was "shocked" that lowering the legal voting age to 16 is a "polarizing" subject of debate. According to Markus Wagner, PhD, Social Sciences Professor at the University of Vienna, and coauthors, studies of subsequent elections show “the quality of these [younger] citizens’ choices is similar to that of older voters, so they do cast votes in ways that enable their interests to be represented equally well.” [9], The United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates among developed countries. Or is this the effect of a contested election in 2017? [4], Until the 1970s, the voting age in America was 21. 13, 2018, Rainesford Stauffer, "These Teens Marched for Gun Laws. [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. And 16-year-olds can vote in Austria, Brazil, parts of Germany, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Nicaragua, and parts of Switzerland. The UK’s Changing Democracy: The 2018 Democratic Audit, Engaging young voters with enhanced election information, The creation of an English Public Services Ombudsman: mapping a way forward. In some parts of the United Kingdom, 16 and 17-year-olds can already vote – such as in Scottish parliament and local elections. Should the UK lower the voting age to 16? In a new book chapter we assess the impact of this policy proposal in Austria, where the general voting age was lowered from 18 to 16 more than a decade ago, in 2007. A different survey found 8% support for lowering the voting age to 16; 45% want to keep it at 18; and 46% would like to raise it back to age 21. The idea behind this was that eighteen-year-olds are able to fight for their country but not able to decide who represents them. WordPress Theme by Solostream. Animal Testing – Should Animals Be Used for Scientific or Commercial Testing? Principles, process and party politics. This is important since other scholarly work suggests that civic and political education plays an important role in preparing young people for active participation in political life. Those who have lowered the voting age have found much success with its results. In particular, the idea was strongly promoted by the left-wing parties, the governing Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) as well as The Greens (in opposition). Importantly, in most instances we find that the youngest group does not differ significantly from older first-time voters (18–20), and in some instances they even outperform them. [8], Austria lowered the voting age to 16 in 2007. In theory, this measure could encourage involvement in politics at an earlier stage of life, while young people are still embedded in family and school surroundings, thus potentially boosting long-term involvement and participation. T he case for lowering the voting age to 16 in the UK would appear to have been strengthened by the resonance of young people in the Scottish referendum. Accessed February 11, 2021. https://www.procon.org/headlines/lowering-the-voting-age-top-3-pros-and-cons/, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. The gap in the level of turnout between this group of adolescents and older first-time voters (18- to 20-year-olds) ranges between +2.3% and +10.0%, meaning that 16- and 17-year-olds are more likely to turn out to vote than older first-time voters. [41] The local NBC news affiliate ran a similar poll online in which 83% of participants were against the bill.