Teenagers as young as 16 will be able to vote in the next general election under sweeping changes to Britain’s voting system unveiled by Labour today.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced the dramatic move, which lowers the voting age from 18 to 16, giving hundreds of thousands of youngsters a say at the ballot box for the first time.
The controversial policy is set to ignite a political firestorm, with critics accusing Labour of trying to rig the election in its favour. Younger voters are widely believed to lean towards left-wing parties, prompting fears the new rules could tilt the outcome.
And the map produced by worldpopulationreview.com seems to bear this view out, with left-leaning or outright Communist nations of Latin America like Cuba that are in the vangard of those countries that have the vote for 16-year olds.
Some may argue, that like Labour, these countries extended the vote to children precisely because they were left of centre, rather than having been brought to power by the strength of younger voters.
Interestingly, while Greece does has a voting age of 17, it is the UK’s Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and others that in fact already extended the voting age to 16 years olds, but these islands are not nation states like Cuba or Argentina who also allow 16 year olds to vote. Scotland and Wales also already have votes at 16, but these are only at their highest level for elections to the Welsh Assembly and Hollyrood.
A study on the only EU country to have given the right to vote in national elections to 16 year olds shows that the stated intention of lowering the voting age – to increase voter participation – does seem to work.
Published on science direct, the electorial studies report found that those given the right to vote at 16 were more likely to vote than 18 to 21 year olds because this older group is more frequently at a stage in life where they generally feel more removed from social networks, such as family and schools, that would tend to encourage voter participation. Researcher believe this suggests that voter turnout has increased in Austria as a result of this.
Experts Laura Bronner and David Ifkovits who wrote the study said “voters develop persistent electoral habits during their first elections.
“The most consistent finding in this literature relates to turnout: Young voters who vote once are more likely to turn out in future elections as well.”
However, there are unintended consquences to lowering the voting age in Austria that Starmer’s Labour Party would do well to heed.
Rather than tending to vote for the main parties like the majority of their parents, according to the researchers teenage voters are more likely to vote for extreme left or right parties that have populist appeal, such as the Far Right FPO Freedom Party that has made considerable gains in the country in recent years.
This effect culminated in its leader Herbert Kickl making considerable gains in Austria’s elections last year and him now being slated as the next Chancellor of the country.
“These voters are more likely to support parties on the extremes of the party system,” said the researchers.
“While several parties seem to gain from the enfranchisement, the effect is most pronounced for the right-wing populist Freedom Party (FPÖ).
“This party experiences large gains in partisan attachment (3.5 points on a 10-point scale), while the effect is smaller or insignificant for the centrist governing parties.”
Before rushing to extend the vote to more teenagers, Labour would be well advised to take the time to reflect on the experiences of other nations, lest it finds itself the victim of unintended consquences.