At what age should we have the right to vote?
By Sebastian Freke-Morin
Or shouldn't. This should equally be questioned.
With the explosive reaction of our nation,
it has been close to impossible to escape the barrage of facts, fears and foreshadowing
that have been brought about due to the “vote leave” campaign in Britain.
The result of this being that more and more people have developed
an interest towards politics; most notably teenagers. Indefinitely being affected
by the outcome as well as the country being in uproar, most minors (including
myself) would like to get involved with discussions, debates and – most importantly
– the ability to vote. So why can’t we?
UK Law states that voters must be:
·
18 or over
·
a British
citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a citizen of the
Republic of Ireland
·
not be subject to
any legal incapacity to vote
[Source:
GOV.UK]
There are legal (and debatably cultural) restrains on us depending
on our age. Examples include: age of consent, consumption of alcohol, learning
to drive, some are banking limitations and the list goes on. Something that
particularly stood out to me was joining the army. As my uncle put it “you can
join the army and serve your country at 16 but you can’t vote for the change in
your country?” – Sounds like dictatorship when you put it that way.
We are led to assume that this is due to our understanding of the
world: that we understand the consequences that arise from said decision at
said age. This applies to any of the laws mentioned before.
Something that frustrated me with the “vote leave” was the lack of
research people had done from either side. Most people you ask would be incapable
of stating at least 3 facts for both for
and against leaving. Lots of
people walked blindly into the polling station and ticked the box that had the
most likes on Facebook.
I believe this is where the youth come in. 72% of eligible voters in
Britain took a trip to the polling station on Thursday the 23rd of
June – which is more of a turn out than usual - including a greater number of
youths. Statistically [see graph 1]
there were more young people between the ages of 20 – 40 that voted to remain.
 |
| [Graph 1. Source: Guardian News] |
So the implicature here is that a lot of younger generations were
more involved than usual. The way I viewed this was: facts > experience.
Mirroring this for the older generations: experience > facts. We have grown
up in a technological era where if we have a question we can turn to our trusty
friend Google for some answers. Unlike older generations who are more likely to
go by T.V., radio and newspapers as told by politicians and publishers.
With the vote turning out to be leaving this gives a nod the experience side of things this made me
question why there is the age limit. The whole idea of democracy is that the
public have a say in how the country is governed. The limitation of having to
be 18 to vote contradicts that don’t you think? And if it’s a question of being
well informed then where has this presumption that all under 18s are less
informed than all over 18s?
The answer to that would be housing, banking and working. Post 18
we run wild in the world making our own way. However for someone like myself
who is 17 years old, soon to make big decisions in my educative life, rent my
first flat, start paying bills and, well, living like anyone else does, it
would appear that I should have an equal say in what happens to my future as
well.
But where does it end? 5 year olds at the polling station that can’t
spell “Government” would be biased. But placing it 18 seems limiting to people’s
rights.
Multiple people have raised the idea of a test. Hypothetically, if
I were to make the decision I would say secondary school students should spend
some time dedicating some of their education learning an unbiased political
GCSE. This could include practical skills as well like mortgages, shopping,
banking etc. All concluded in a test at the end that would give a rounded
education in order to have an educated opinion on who or what to vote for.
At this point, post 16 when we start making decisions in our
education we should have the right to vote.
Some claim that the elderly should not have the right to vote because "it's not their future". They have the equal rights to vote for the same reasons as we do. They still live in the country, pay taxes and everything else in between.
There is no definitive answer so let me know what you think.
Seb
Twitter: @SebFrekeMorin #RightToVote
