Posted on 03/21/2004 4:59:04 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
SIXTEEN-year-olds are set to get the vote in time for next year’s widely-anticipated general election under Labour plans to increase the number of people who go to the polls.
Labour policy-makers have decided to rush through legislation reducing the voting age by two years if the Electoral Commission decides - as expected - that the move would boost the turnout in future elections.
Extending the franchise is seen as an essential step to combating the electorate’s increasing apathy, which saw the turnout at the last UK-wide poll drop to just 59%.
But the move would give the UK the lowest voting age in western Europe and last night concern was raised over whether it would have any effect. Voters in their late teens and early 20s are the least inclined to turn out on polling day. It was also suggested that Labour had found sudden enthusiasm for extending voting rights - with just a year expected until the next general election - after it emerged most young people would vote for the party.
Labour’s electoral reform proposals also include allowing people as young as 18 to stand as candidates at elections, substantially reducing the current age limit of 21.
The change in policy was agreed at this weekend’s meeting of the Labour National Policy Forum at Warwick. It is the policy forum which draws up proposals for the Labour manifesto.
Although the policy must still be ratified by the Labour conference, which will take place in Brighton this October, a Labour insider said the conference was "certain" to back the proposals.
Thomas Docherty, a Scottish Labour delegate to the policy forum, who pushed for the change in policy, said: "What we have decided is that if the Electoral Commission recommends we should do it then we will do it. It takes the party politics out of the decision and it means that it will happen."
Asked whether the change would happen in time for the next general election, Docherty replied: "That will be the plan and the intention. We would hope to have it done in time for the election.
"The only thing that might stop it would be a lack of parliamentary time. But if the time is there, then it will happen."
A Downing Street source said the policy had been "thrust to the forefront" of the government's thinking because it had been an unexpectedly hot topic in the ‘Big Conversation’, Tony Blair’s national debate on future policy. The source added: "There is a case for it and we will wait to see what the Electoral Commission says. But we will follow the commission’s lead on this. Sixteen-year-olds could get the vote under these proposals before the general election."
The Electoral Commission will publish its report on the subject towards the end of next month and it is expected that it will support enfranchising 16-year-olds.
The decision would add an extra 100,000 voters to the electoral roll in Scotland, which currently has 4 million eligible to vote. Across the UK it would add an extra 1.3 million to the 44 million people who may go to the ballot box.
How many of those would exercise their new right is questionable. At the general election in 2001, only 39% of 18 to 24-year-olds bothered to vote, according to the pollsters MORI.
But Rami Okasha, the president of the National Union of Students Scotland, said it welcomed the news.
He said: "I was speaking to one student recently who said that if politicians have the right to vote for top-up fees for students, then the students should have the right to vote them out of office. We believe that there should be no taxation without representation."
Linda Fabiani, of the SNP, said: "The SNP have long campaigned for the voting age to be reduced to 16 and I am pleased that Labour have finally decided to consider the idea. If young people can get married, pay tax and join the armed forces at 16 then they should have the right to vote.
"It is important that young people feel involved in politics in Scotland and reducing the voting age will give them the opportunity to have their voice heard."
John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said: "I can’t think of any reason to oppose it, but given what we know about the voting habits of 18 and 19-year-olds, we can be pretty sure that a lot of 16-year-olds will not choose to use their votes."
On the subject of who might ultimately benefit from the move, Curtice said: "Younger people will tend to vote for parties who are breaking through, and in Scotland that would favour the likes of the Greens and the Scottish Socialist Party. But I do not expect the swing to be that dramatic. People’s political leanings are greatly influenced by their parents’ views, and many will vote along the same lines as their parents."
However, recent research suggests Labour would enjoy direct gains from the reform.
A series of UK-wide polls conducted last year by Mori, suggested that of the 54% of 16 and 17-year-olds who named a party they would vote for, 60% would vote Labour, 18% Conservative and 15% Liberal Democrat, with 7% backing other parties.
Only a fifth of the young people surveyed said they would not vote, with the rest saying they would vote but were unable to say who they would vote for.
David Willets, Conservative head of policy, said: "One has to ask whether there is a measure of self-interest here as well as diversion. This is a government which has turned a whole country against politics by their failure to listen to parliament and their failure to keep their promises. This is simply a distraction. What they should be concentrating on is reforming the public services rather than engaging in this."
In Britain, the voting age was 21 until it was lowered to 18 as a result of the Representation of the People Act 1969.
Most countries have a minimum voting age of 18, although it is 17 in East Timor, Indonesia, North Korea, the Seychelles and the Sudan, 16 in Brazil, Cuba and Nicaragua, and 15 in Iran.
Labour has previously been split over the suggestion of lowering the voting age. While the party in England and Wales has been keen on the idea, Scottish Labour has been traditionally frosty because of fears it might aid the SNP, because younger Scots are seen as more liable to vote for the Nationalists. Labour insiders now believe that the SNP’s poor performance means it is less likely to attract the youth vote.
In January, schools minister David Miliband - and a close adviser of Tony Blair’s - told a conference of A-level students that it was illogical to prevent 16-year-olds voting when they were allowed to get married and work at that age.
Or is she too 'old' for 'em?
I'm not into nor up on teen music people, but folks ... imagine there was no assanation of John Lennon and this ruling came around ...
King John and Queen Yoko!
Just imagine ... it isn't hard to do ...
No! Jus-tin! Jus-tin! Jus-tin!
Modern society is marked by gross immaturity of people even those well into their twenties and thirties.
Voters should be at least 21.
I wish it stopped there (although I agree with the main point).
Amazing how weak the Tory soundbite here is. Of course, that could be the reporter. Big point is that 16 years old are (one only hopes) under close parental supervision and thus their franchise could not be exercised in an independent way. Plus the knowledge/maturity issues. There is a legislator in California also proposing something like this (he wants quarter votes for 14 year olds), but that seemed like a joke. Apparently it is not.
I hate to have to point out how this fits into the agenda of those who work to destroy and sexualize childhood. Lower age of consent to follow.
Instead of lowering the voting age maybe they should consider raising the age for these things. I don't think the UK does that much better at raising young people to take on adult responsibility.
Now, even more serfs are advanced the opportunity to voice a preference in the selection of their overseers.
This was done in the colonial USA. It was eventually decided that it was a bad idea.
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