Pros and Cons of Lowering the Voting Age to 166 min read

Voting rights have become one of the most contested matters in modern-day politics. With the increasing number of younger people in most countries, the calls for lowering the voting age to sixteen are rising. This reduction in the voting age can become beneficial in various aspects.

Lowering the voting age will increase public participation in democracy, increasing turnout, and driving social engagement up. But critics believe that young people are immature, cannot make big decisions, are risky, which are the cons of lowering the voting age to 16.

Undoubtedly the future belongs to the younger generation as they have the maximum stakes in any society. By giving them the access to vote at an early age, the participation of the younger voters can be increased significantly in any political discourse.

Pros of Lowering the Voting Age to 16

Helping Democracy by allowing Young People to Vote

A perfect democratic setup allows everyone to participate in elections, which means that younger people should also be allowed to do the same. If the voting age is reduced to 16, the election results will obviously reflect the opinion of the majority of people, which is not the case otherwise.

Voter Turnout will Increase

Young voters have a large turnout as most of the first-time voters are really excited about the elections. All the voters between 16-18 will be first-time voters, so they will be really excited to vote in their first elections.

This stands true specifically for countries like America, where taking the voters out can be a significant problem at times. In the 2020 US presidential elections, voting turnout remained 66.7% (that’s too, in the presence of extensive mail-in voting). In 2016, the turnout was only 55.7%.

So, more inclusion of young people will increase voter turnout.

Giving Young People their Fair Share 

The global population is aging at a rapid pace, particularly in first-world countries, where birth rates are getting lower with every passing day. This aging population means that the number of voters will reduce with time once the older generation expires, which brings the need to allow younger people to vote.

And birth rates are expected to decrease further in times to come which will increase the aging phenomenon in most of the countries. New medical technologies are coming which are increasing the average lifespan in most parts of the world. For instance, 61 million people are expected to die in 2022, while 130 million are likely to be born. The share of the younger generation will rise, so their political clout should also increase significantly, which is only possible by lowering the voting age.

Participation Of Youth Positively Impacts Society

When the voting age is reduced to 16, younger generations will have a say in the legislation-making process, as they will be directly choosing their own representatives. This will initiate a public debate on so many important issues within the society that matters to common people.

One of the easiest ways to create social mobilization is to initiate social debates in any society. When young people get a chance to vote, they start debating about the pressing issues in society, thus bringing more ideas to change the society around them.

Low Voting Age Increases Social Engagement and Civic Responsibilities

By the age of 18, most people successfully develop habits that influence their whole life. Now, here is the catch. When younger people are forced to make a decision at the age of 16-18, they feel a sense of responsibility and end up developing lifelong habits of social engagement. 

Resultantly, they grow up as mature human beings, which eventually impact almost every society in a productive way.

Cons Of Reducing Voting Age

But reducing the voting age also comes with some disadvantages, which are as follow:

Teens Are Not Given Many Other Mature Responsibilities

Critics believe that teens are not given most of the full-time responsibilities until the age of 18, so they should not be allowed to vote as well.

For example, most younger kids at the age of 16 are not allowed to work full time, get a credit card or hold a federal job or hand over their debts. So why should they be given the most important responsibility of voting?

Younger People are Emotional

Younger people tend to make emotional decisions without properly analyzing the pros and cons of every situation. For example, they can vote for a candidate who makes superficial claims without measuring the truthfulness of their promises.

Let’s admit that not many children know the nitty-gritty of economics, or any other subject matter, at the age of 16. So, why should they be expected to make sensible voting decisions that have consequences for the whole community?

Teenagers are More Risky 

Teenagers are always inclined to take more risks compared to older people, and the data proves it.

Reportedly, adolescents are more incline towards criminal activities, contract sexual transmistted diseases compared to other demographic groups. Similarly, teenagers are 200 % more prone to accidental death or injury than other age groups.

While this data might be related to medicine, risk-taking behavior is always greater in younger people, as found in different studies. Should young people be allowed to vote if they are too risky? Critics say no as it can jeopardize the freedom of the whole country.

Parents Can Influence Voting Decision of Young People 

Voting is a personal choice, and it needs to be as well, as this is the whole point of voting. What if parents are supporting a different candidate than their children, and they decide to influence the voting decision of their child? Who will be responsible then?

While not all parents will be a big fan of the idea that they should impose their will on the voting decision of their children, ruling out this possibility is also an unfair approach. So at the end of the day, we get some people who vote twice and some kids whose voting rights are being compromised by their parents.

This will especially stand true in the presence of mail-in and early voting, where influencing the voting choice of children is an easy job.

Which Countries Allow Voting At 16?

Allowing voting at the age of 16 is not something new. Many countries (and territories) have already allowed their younger generation to vote, including:

• Argentina
• Austria
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Brazil
• Cuba
• Ecuador
• Ethiopia
• Guernsey
• Isle of Man
• Jersey
• Nicaragua
• Scotland

Voting At 16: A Case Study of Austria

Austria has a lower voting age limit of 16, which is a case study for the whole European Union.

Europe is one of those continents where the proportion of aged people is rising at a significant pace, and it is only a matter of time before young people will be completely ignorant of the important political decisions of the continent.

This demographic change in Europe is expected to impact the Democratic institutions of the region if some sane decisions are not taken immediately.

If we consider the case of Brexit, it is easy to see that older people decided to bring the United Kingdom out of the EU. Had it been more about younger people, the UK would still have been a part of the EU. This case study means that younger people have the capability of standing against the status quo in the EU.

Being a part of the same EU, Austrians are also facing a demographic crisis.

Consider the following population data for Austria.

Source: https://population-pyramid.net/en/pp/austria

You can see that the elderly population of Austria will increase from time to time, so if the young people are denied their fair share in political representation, they are at the disadvantaged end.

If we look at the election data of Austria, we can see that the Austrian younger generation voted overwhelmingly right when the voting age was lowered to 16 for the first time. In the 2008 elections (which were the first ones with a low voting age), 88 % of first-time voters (between ages 16-17) voted, which was larger than the overall turnout.

But this number declined in the 2013 elections before rising once again in 2018. But now, Austrian youth is well interested in politics, which manifests that the young population is likely to make a big difference when they are given a chance to participate in politics, which can only be done by lowering the voting age to 16.

Final Thoughts

The decision to lower the voting age to 16 rests with the lawmakers of every country, but one thing is for sure: young people are always excited to bring some changes in their country, so they should be given ample chances to do that. Most countries will need constitutional amendments for lowering the voting age for 16, which suggests that conservatives will always be resisting the idea. All the cons of the lower voting age can easily be tackled by proper education drives, but the damage done by disenfranchising such an important part of the population can not be controlled easily.