Last year brought
two shock election results. Many young people are blaming the over 65s for the
way the results have turned out, does this mean they are too old to vote? Read on
to find out.
On the 23rd June 2016, I voted for the first time
at 22 years of age. I was excited, brimming with hope that my vote would make a
difference to my future.
On the 24th June, I woke up to a result that I,
the polls, and many politicians didn’t expect. In case you have been living
under a rock, that result was for Britain to leave the European Union.
When the polls started feeding through the internet, I was
shocked and slightly frustrated to see how different age groups had voted.
In two big elections, last year (Brexit and the US Presidential
Election) the over 65s have voted vastly different to the younger generation.
In Brexit 75% of 18-24s voted remain, but only 39% of those 65+.
In the US election, only 37% of 18-29s voted for Trump,
whereas 53% of the 65+ category voted for him. This has created a lot of doubt
in the system.
With people living longer and the baby boomers now between
the ages of 52 and 70, the older generation is a growing population. The over
65s are the generation that has the highest turnout of voters and many young
people are feeling as though their vote has a lower impact.
Following Brexit, there was a wave of media reports and
Tweets complaining about the older generation. Headlines in the press included:
“EU Referendum Results: Young ‘Screwed By Older Generations” from the
Huffington Post and “How old people have screwed over the younger
generations’…” from the Independent.
Some tweets from the public are shown below.
Maximum voting age
The
older generation were deemed to be “to blame” for, what is assumed to be the
“wrong” decision. This is under the assumption that the younger generation overall
voted for the “right” choice.
Do people really feel as though these democratic rights
should be stripped away once you hit a certain age? Harry Taylor 23, a History
and Politics graduate said: “To stop and deny people voting based on age,
something beyond their control would be an affront to democracy.
“They (the older generation) will vote in far more restrictive
ways and arguably less progressive ways compared to a younger generation, and I
think that’s led to a lot of cause for older people to be stopped.”
In an exclusive survey of 94 people ran by myself, 16.3%
said they thought there should be a maximum voting age, the suggestions of that
age ranged from 60-80.
One person said that the maximum voting age should be 65:
“because it isn't their future.” However, the average life expectancy in the UK
is 81, this would mean some people living for 16 or more years without the
ability to vote, so how many years do you have to have left to be deemed to
have a future?
Taylor said: “Yes in an ideal world they (the 18-24s) might
go and live the entirety of the rest of that parliament where those decisions
will be taken, therefore they’ll see the benefit or the downsides whereas
somebody who’s 80/70 might not. However that’s based on an ideal world”
If the maximum voting age was 65, should we then also have a
maximum candidate age. Hillary Clinton is 69 and Donald Trump is 70, they
therefore would not be able to vote. Would younger candidates and younger
voters represent the country better, or show lack of experience and knowledge?
Judging by the survey results, the consensus is that there
shouldn’t be a maximum age on voting, and after all, isn’t this the result we
all expected. “I don’t agree with the older persons voting tendencies, but I
think it’s a basic human right to be able to vote,” said one respondent.
The argument that being unable to vote is against our human
rights is a common thread that keeps coming up. Producer Stephen Robert Morse
shared his view on Twitter.
If this was to happen, who would decide who is “old”, and should
therefore, would everyone need do a competence test. We may then only have
those with higher education voting, and this does not represent the whole of
the British public. To have rules on who is “capable” of voting, would affect
our democratic stance.
This maybe is the view of many people, many who complained
about the way the generation voted, but would not take away their right to
vote. But if it is a basic human right to vote, shouldn’t 16 and 17 year olds
be allowed to vote?
Minimum Age
In the poll, people were also asked what they think the minimum
voting age should be. 45.7% said that the voting age should remain at 18,
whilst 40.4% felt the age should be lowered to 16. Out of those that voted that
the age should reduce to 16, 11.6% of those felt there should be a maximum
voting age.
If this age group had voted we could have had an entirely
different set of results. But with the 18-24 group only having a 36% turnout
for Brexit, compared to an 83% turnout of 65+. Would a 16-17-year-old vote make
a difference? Surely just a higher turnout could change the results as there
was just under 1.3 million difference in the votes.
But are under 18s classed as adults? From 2015, children
must stay in full time education until they are 18, many of their decisions
need parental consent, for example, marriage and joining the army.
One person surveyed said: “If lowered to 16 I think you
would get a lot of immature people voting wrongly and for the wrong reasons”
but many people surveyed do not agree and think that 16 year olds are mature
enough to vote for our country.
How can people campaign for a younger voting age whilst also
excluding such a large proportion of the population?
Age discrimination
With the result of Brexit and the presidential election,
many people feel we have taken a step back and have opened our society up to
much more discrimination and racism.
So why are these same people asking for a cut in who can
vote.
Some people have said that voters are sulking that the
decision hasn’t gone the way they expected and they are looking for someone to
blame.
Young people are overwhelmingly looking for someone to blame
for the way this election turned out. They feel as though they have been failed
by their government and by their own family members.
But wouldn’t we rather live in a democratic society where
there is no maximum age to vote, albeit terrible decisions that may be made.
To have an upper age limit on voting is a short-sighted
opinion. This would massively cut down the numbers of people voting and would
not represent the entire population. It would be disregarding decades of life
experience and knowledge.
It is clear from our survey results that the majority of
people, in any age group, don’t wish for a maximum voting age. But the divide
in voting between the age groups is clear.
Young people looking for someone to blame for elections
results should perhaps look towards those who don’t vote. With 64% of 18-24s
not turning out to vote in Brexit and 11.7% in our survey (7.4% of those were
under 25), the results could have been entirely different with a higher
turnout.
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