Letter: Scotland’s young people deserve this vote

Published on Sunday 12 February 2012 00:00

I WELCOME your Leader (29 January) which supports the right of 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the referendum and in all future elections.

While the referendum will be one of the most important choices voters in Scotland have ever been asked to make, it is Scotland’s young people who will live with the outcome of that vote.

The reality is that giving young adults the right to vote would reflect a widely held vision of what Scotland as a progressive, rights-respecting country could become.

I disagree with the view that extending the vote to young people is a political gimmick, or – as Professor John Curtice writing in your paper last Sunday would seem to suggest – that young people are largely politically disengaged.

My consultation in 2010-11 with children and young people – A RIGHT Blether – in which nearly 75,000 voted in a ballot, gave the lie to the assumption that young people are apathetic.

The quality of their ideas and the passion with which they expressed their views demonstrated how enthused, informed and articulate many young people are about the kind of country they want to live in. They are highly motivated when they have a stake in the issues.

However, due to election cycles, many young people do not actually get to exercise their right to vote in a general election until they are in their twenties. By this time, many have lost interest. Allowing them to vote at a younger age would help to buck this trend.

For the process of extending voting rights to be credible, we need to ensure that we do not exclude any 16 and 17-year-olds. And for this reason, the electoral register should allow 14 and 15-year-olds to go on to the full register (but not the publicly available version). I think this is a surmountable technical issue. I hope that it is one the Electoral Commission and the Election Management Board will give early thought to, and that 16 and 17-year-olds will be fully enfranchised for the referendum vote.

Tam Baillie

Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People

Comments

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7

Lord HawHaw

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 03:38 PM

* mogatrons , are these the same 16 and 17 year olds that have the knock on effect on alcohol pricing,ASBO's and gang fights ? take a look out your window and tell me which of the hooded future young voters you want to entrust with a future Scotland.. I can see the voting slogans now " vote yes for SNP and yes to bucky " or vote labour say yes to lady gaga init...

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fourbyfour

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 02:02 PM

StuartAD So what you are advocating is that the right to vote should be restricted to the more intelligent amongst us? How democratic of you.

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samcoldstream

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 01:23 PM

On the Isle of Man and Channel Islands, British through and through, 16 and 17 year olds have the right to vote in every election. In 1970, because of the falling voter turnout in the post-War period, ALL the political parties agreed to reducing the UK voting age from 21 to 18. You can bet your last red cent that if the low voter turnout in the UK, in which an average of one third of registered voters never bother to turnout falls any lower, then Westminster will reduce the voting age or introduce an incentive to vote as they do in 18 countries. Indeed, some day Westminster may have to bring in compulsory voting like 29 other countries worldwide?

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mogatrons

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 01:17 PM

StuartAD; That'll be the same 16&17 year olds who serve in our military, have the right to marry, are held accountable as adults in law, and are already eligible to vote on non governmental body elections...........As you so eloquently demonstrate in your ranting post, age is no reflection of wisdom, nor is it a limit to a persons ignorance!...........................................................................If 16&17 year old are already accountable and franchised in all aspects of our society, then surely they earn the right to have a say on how that society is governed?

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StuartAD

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 08:53 AM

That will be the teenagers who have not the sense to put on a coat on a freezing night then! The future is secure, no more worries, plenty of support from the teens who have the maturity to cross safely at level crossings with ear plugs to hear the alarms as trains cross, king alex must be worried if he wants that kind of support.

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Back To The Future

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 12:57 AM

The only reason that 16 & 17 year olds ,ight be allowed to vote is because a certain greasy politician on the make thinks that they would vote for his big adventure. Nothing more nothing less.

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fourbyfour

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 12:32 AM

Rest assured, 16 and 17 year olds will vote in the referendum.

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