{"id":1238,"date":"2018-01-22T15:49:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T15:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electoral-reform.org.uk\/?p=1238"},"modified":"2018-01-22T15:49:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T15:49:58","slug":"survey-results-add-weight-to-argument-for-votes-at-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/survey-results-add-weight-to-argument-for-votes-at-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Survey results add weight to argument for Votes at 16"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When reformers argue<\/b>\u00a0in\u00a0<\/b>favour<\/b>\u00a0of<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>extending the vote to\u00a0<\/b>16 and 17-year-olds<\/b>, they often do so by stating what other things those within that<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>bracket are already\u00a0<\/b>doing<\/b>\u00a0(<\/b>paying taxes,\u00a0<\/b>driving etc.)<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For many people these arguments will ring true \u2013 but for those who disagree with the existing rights of\u00a0young people, they are unlikely to be hugely persuasive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More universally accepted are figures. And on this issue, there has been a telling figure in the public domain for some time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A survey<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by the Electoral Commission\u00a0following the Scottish\u00a0Independence Referendum (in which 16 and 17-year-olds were entitled to vote) found that an impressive\u00a075%\u00a0had\u00a0taken part.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The figure is doubly impressive given the fact this was the first time anyone within that group would have voted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The survey also rubbished the lazy assumption that because voter turnout has been\u00a0low among 18 to 24-year-olds then it will be similarly low among 16 and 17-year-olds. The claimed turnout\u00a0among\u00a0the former group was just 54% by comparison.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that 16 and 17-year-olds voted in large\u00a0numbers in\u00a0the\u00a0Scottish Independence\u00a0referendum\u00a0shows that given the chance, those under 18 will exercise their democratic right.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New research<\/a>\u00a0has now\u00a0supplemented\u00a0this finding by providing evidence that not only will they vote, but that it is highly likely they will\u00a0continue\u00a0to vote and\u00a0be more\u00a0politically\u00a0engaged\u00a0as a result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through a survey carried out in\u00a0February\u00a02015 (after the\u00a0Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014) it was found that 67% of 16 and 17-year-olds in Scotland indicated they would likely\u00a0vote if allowed to do so in the General Election,\u00a0compared\u00a0to just 39% south of the border.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, while 57% of Scottish respondents said they had taken part in at least one form of non-electoral political engagement, only 40% of 16 and\u00a017-year-olds\u00a0from the rest of the UK reported the same.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The report’s author,\u00a0Jan Eichhorn<\/a>, goes on to\u00a0assess\u00a0the\u00a0impact of ‘socialising\u00a0influences’ on the\u00a0results,\u00a0including whether respondents had discussed politics at home in\u00a0the preceding months and their experiences at school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He concludes that:\u00a0“the\u00a0results seem to suggest a degree of optimism that indeed early enfranchisement\u2014in a good relationship with other factors, such as civic education and parental\u00a0socialisation\u2014can play a positive role on the political participation of young people.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This newly published<\/b>\u00a0research supports the assertion that if people\u00a0<\/b>vote early in life, they keep voting in later\u00a0<\/b>life.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Politicians\u00a0in Westminster\u00a0and\u00a0Cardiff\u00a0should now follow the lead of their colleagues in Holyrood and put their trust in\u00a0the leaders of tomorrow.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When reformers argue\u00a0in\u00a0favour\u00a0of\u00a0extending the vote to\u00a016 and 17-year-olds, they often do so by stating what other things those within that\u00a0bracket are already\u00a0doing\u00a0(paying taxes,\u00a0driving etc.)\u00a0 For many people these arguments will ring true \u2013 but for those who disagree with the existing rights of\u00a0young people, they are unlikely to be hugely persuasive.\u00a0\u00a0 More universally accepted are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-1238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-votes-at-16","tag-votes-at-16","feature-category-comment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}