Heading to the polls: What does voting mean to today’s youth?
On May 2, I voted, for real, for the first time.
Even though my secondary school, held mock elections, and once even a mock referendum, actually voting for the first time was a nervous, exciting and, dare I say it, fun experience.
Now this will probably wear off with time and I will probably experience voter apathy by the time I hit my 30s, but voting is something I feel will always be important to me.
I remember once at my primary school, when I was in year five or six, we asked our English teacher how she voted and she gave us this speech about how you should never ask someone how they voted because voting is anonymous for a reason, but what she said next has stuck with me: ‘It is a woman’s responsibility to vote because her ancestors and comrades fought, fight and die for the right and to not vote is to say they died in vain and women do not deserve equality. Voting is a right not a privilege, do not waste your chance to have your say.’
Now as a barely 10 year-old, I didn’t fully grasp the extent of inequality between genders, or that there was one even! But I remember the passion with which she gave the speech and vowed I would not waste the opportunity granted to me.
But do all young people feel the same way as me?
I asked some of my work colleagues for their views on voting, to find out.
In the local elections held on the May 2, six of them wanted to vote, four of them didn’t and two of them were undecided when asked on April 29. Apply that to the general population and that would mean that 50% of the population voted in the local elections, 33% didn’t vote and 17% see how they feel on the day. Compared to the figures from 2016, where there was a 43.41% turnout and this shows young people today are more likely to vote than the general population was, but three years ago.
Of the colleagues polled 20% would be first time voters, like me.
When asked whether voting was important to them 100% of them said it was.
I also asked them whether they believed, people their age, under 30, understood voting. 46% said they thought, most people their age understood voting, 38% believed everybody their age understood voting and 8% of the colleagues polled believed people their age did not understand voting.
But can young people be even more politically engaged? I asked my colleagues for their views on improving relations between politicians and young people and one of them said by providing better education in schools and colleges this would in turn encourage more young people to vote. Another said that the MPs should ‘Behave in a less childish way, the way we see them behaving in the House of Commons can be so childish and does not inspire respect or confidence towards them.’
But is the voting age even correct, should it be raised, lowered or stay the same?
I asked the people of Winchester and some members of Facebook, their opinions on the topic.
What I found was, many people favoured either the voting age being lowered to 16, to be in line with the age you can choose to join the army or consent to having sex, or being raised back up again to 21, to alleviate some of the pressures faced by modern day youth. There were also some suggestions of an intelligence test or upper limit cap being introduced to stop the politically naïve or elderly voting. There was even a mention of amending the election act to make voting compulsory!
Paul Salter, a Winchester resident, pointed out that although the voting age should be lowered the voting system needs to change to reflect today’s changing societal needs. He said: ‘The age needs to be lowered but this needs to be promoted though schools and youth groups. Dropping the age is simply political. Getting feet on the ground, is far more important…reignite youth support services, HCC (Hampshire County Council) should take the lead to reduce mental health, economic hardship, increase safeguarding and real youth and family support. Also the voting system is flawed on a policy interest basis…older generations love the NHS because they use it continuously, young rarely do and they don’t care, young are faced with university fees and are interested in the regeneration of their local…when we receive party leaflets there’s no YP (young people) section and they always have pictures of men that generally might make youngsters cross the road on the front there need to be YP representatives.’
Among other reasons to lower the voting age, Amy Louise Coxhead said: ‘If someone can legally have sex, they should be able to vote.’
Another reason was brought to light by Leila Kay Tanner who said the voting age should be lowered to 16 as ‘You can pay tax then so should be able to vote on where it goes’.
Lauren Somerfield argued the voting age should be lowered following the Brexit vote saying: ‘I was JUST above voting age when Brexit was put forth to the country, but many in my year weren’t even though they were sensible enough to know what they wanted to vote for. And so many of the year below were ready too. I think that excluding a fairly big chunk of the country who understands the implications of that vote is foolish given they’re the ones who have to live with a bad vote for the longest.’
Finally, A-level Student, Grace Reid said: ‘I’m 17 and I do politics for A level and find it frustrating that I can’t vote.’
The argument to raise the voting age was put forward strongly by Robert Rudd, 57, who said: ‘Well if all the reports are true, that teenagers are suffering far higher rates of stress, depression, and mental health issues, and are struggling to cope. Then the last thing that should be happening is another burden being placed upon them to further increase their anxieties. So raise it back to 21. And why put an upper age limit on and so exclude many who have worked and fought to ensure we still have the freedom and democracy that exists today.’
Another reason to raise the voting age was suggested by Nigel David Turnbull, who said: ‘21 seems more realistic, most…not all would have been in a work environment, gaining real life experiences. Most by then are mature enough to understand basic politics…16 is not an acceptable age, just out of school…or possibly still attending, with no experiences.’
Lauren Harris argued the voting age needed to ‘go up, not down’ because ‘we’ll be a right mess otherwise.’
The argument to cap it came from Neil Cornmell who said the ‘inability’ of the over 60s to take part in reasoned debate makes the over 60s ‘problematic politically’.
Of the people asked 52% were in favour of lowering the voting age. 20% wanted the voting age to be raised. 8% wanted to voting age to be capped. 4% wanted the voting age to stay the same and 16% wanted an intelligence test implemented instead of having a voting age.
So now, I have voted for the first time. Yes, it was different than I imagined it and right up until I got in the voting booth, I had no idea who I was going to vote for, I was unsure as to whether I should vote tactically or morally, but I voted. I had my say.
This big milestone of the human life has been completed and what I learnt was this.
I don’t know what I was nervous about.
