Should the voting age be lowered to 14?

Question

In the UK the current voting age is 18, would more people vote if the voting age was lowered to 14?

In addition you can:

Join a political party on your 15th birthday.
Pay tax and national insurance from being 16.
Get married and have children at 16.
Buy fags at 16.
Drive at tractor or moped at 16.
Drive a car at 17.
Drink in a pub at 18.

Vote at 18. Surely paying taxes before you can vote is just wrong. If children were educated on the seriousness of voting and the options out there then at 14 when they've got a lot to say they would be willing to contribute to the process of selecting a government.

Answer 1

I absolutely think it should be lowered to 14. Whether kids decide to vote or not is their business, but I think the right should be there for those who want to.

People say kids that age aren't responsible, but then look around you; how many adults do you see trying to figure out how to get out of traffic tickets, rather than just admitting they were wrong and paying them? How many adults do you see getting drunk on weekends, just because they don't want to deal maturely with work and family problems in their lives? How many do you see making unhealthy decisions in regards to food and exercise?

People say kids will just vote the way their parents tell them, and not make informed decisions. For those of you who have 14 year olds, how often do they do what you tell them? How many adults just walk into the voting booth and vote straight party, without even looking at the candidates (beyond their party affiliation)? In any case, people get most of their political views from their parents. Most conservatives probably had conservative parents. Most liberals had liberal parents, and so on. It's a fact of life. Where do you draw the line between a person being told to vote a certain way, and a person voting in a manner consistent with their upbringing? In any case, once you go in the voting booth, nobody can stand behind you and tell you what to do. Only you can make the choice.

People say kids probably won't use their right to vote, but then again, look at the low poll numbers we get in our elections. Fourteen to eighteen year olds indeed probably won't vote, but I think the right should be there for those who are responsible enough and politically aware enough to care and go to the polls and vote.

Answer 2

The Youth Parliament has actually been a real success (are you reading that thecharleslloyd? - there is such a thing already) and there's been a lot of work looking into whether the voting age should be lowered to 16, including Government Minister's hinting that there might be some merit to doing so. I'm not clear how you could argue 14 and am really not convinced that would be right as 14 year olds are legally minors. However, the argument about going for lowering the age to 16 focuses around the fact that at 16 you start enjoying more legal rights as an individual. I think the problem is that at 16 there is no right to state benefits and a lower minimum wage, you can't drink but you can smoke, you can leave home and if you are made homeless you are classed as 'priority need' to access temporary housing and be housed by the local authorities, within a year you'll be able to drive but still not vote etc etc. - 16 and 17 year olds live in this kind of no-mans land, where they're not quite adults, but no longer seen as kids. I think perhaps the debate should focus on whether we bring in a more uniform point of legality, whether 16 or 18 where we see a transition from being a minor to becoming an adult. Being able to earn a decent living wage, being able to take back out of the system if something goes wrong, being able to choose whether to drink or smoke, and being able to influence the governance of the country by voting.

I think there is some merit to the argument that if kids got the vote at 16 they might grow up with a habit of voting and it amazes me how many kids are more clued up these days than adults - although they do tend to focus more on single issues. However, I don't think it would be fair for people to have a vote and not have the same rights as older voters and I'm pretty confident that 16 year olds would make that point quite clearly. As the government have been looking at this issue I guess its one to watch.

One final point - its interesting that you can join a political party before you can actually vote for them.

Answer 3

It should be the age where you are recognize as an adult. If it gets to old you have a less of a mix of different views because you miss out on generation gaps. To young and other people are right, to easily influenced.
Not that some 14 year olds wouldn't make good informed decisions, but not the majority of them.
Either way its a far from perfect system and most people are a lot more influenced than they think.

Answer 4

No, I don't think so.

Sadly, there is a lot of apathy about politics these days and I don't think lowering the voting age would help.

I don't think 14 year olds are mature enough to vote.

Sorry.

Make politics more real, and educate youngpeople about the importance of democracy - THEN hopefully people would be less let down by politics.

But 14 is still too young.

Possibly 16.

Answer 5

At age 14 they barely have an education on world history and political systems. Let them turn 18, get a job and pay taxes. If anything the voting system needs to be purged and reworked so only legal citizens with no un-pardoned felonies are voting. If you are on welfare or receiving any state or federal subsidies aside from school grants you should not be allowed to vote. It's a conflict of interest at that point.

Answer 6

14 year olds aren't responsible enough to vote. They also don't really understand the complicated issues that governments face. Most adults don't even understand those issues. I wouldn't be opposed to raising the voting age to 21. (Although I am in the USA, the voting age here is 18 and 14 year olds are pretty much at the same maturity level here as they are in the UK.)

Answer 7

i may well be greater susceptible to develop the balloting age to 30. till this age, maximum folk will vote the way that their mom and dad do, basically multiplying 2 persons critiques, as adversarial to easily putting greater cautioned voters into the pool. we've adequate uninformed voters in there as this is. greater voters be attentive to the place the final American Idol became into born than the place the vice-presidential applicants have been from. additionally, a 14 twelve months old has no instant stake in the rustic, as you're nevertheless, legally, sources of your mom and dad. You pay no tax, consequently have no longer something invested in the rustic. i'm additionally in want of removing the the remainder of the non-tax paying human beings from the balloting sales area. the terrific undertaking a seventh grader can do for themselves is: study the form. in case you hear a candidate make supplies by contrast checklist, run from them. As rapid as you could, run. The shape became into placed there to guard us from a central authority that ought to get rid of our freedoms. anybody who's against the form is against freedom and could be prevented and stopped in any respect expenses.

Answer 8

I think it may be better to raise the voting age (not that I seriously think that should be done) because people in general don't really follow politics and it takes much more life experience to truly understand issues that affect individuals and society as a whole.

With all due respect to teens, they wouldn't make very responsible voters because they don't really follow politics or read newspapers or watch Meet the Press or take the time to study social or foreign policy.

Let them be teens and enjoy their youth while they can.

Answer 9

Absolutely not. Most people under 18 don't give a flip about politics. I do.....and I would vote. But for the good of the country, it's better that the voting age remain 18.

Answer 10

No
The political bias of schools etc is so overwhelmingly Left Wing that students would have no opportunity to gain a balanced view.
18 is about right but 16 for those not in full time education and 21 for those in ful time education would be fairer.
Raise the age to 80 and "Call me Dave" might even win.