Should 16- and 17-year-olds be allowed to vote? Here’s what they think

A youth-led report, published by The Children’s Rights Alliance earlier this week, called for the voting age to be lowered to 16 to allow young people under 18 years to have a voice in the political process.

The report follows on from a difficult two years for children who were disproportionately impacted by Covid restrictions – yet their voices went largely unheard.

Is it time to lower the voting age, or are those aged 16 and 17 too immature to be given the responsibility of such a privilege?

“There isn’t any magic age at which young people become an adult,” says Dr Caroline Henry, senior lecturer in psychology at UCG.

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“The science around what we call developmental maturity is much more nuanced. When it comes to decision-making, a lot depends on the kind of decisions that we’re asking young people to make.

“The voting issue is an example of the type of decision that involves deliberate, reasoned decision-making where we have time and space to weigh up the pros and cons and make an informed decision, and many young people are showing similar capacities to what we might expect in adults.

“Some will do that better than others, but the same applies with older individuals. Some young people will be more engaged with political issues, will be more aware and more interested, just like we see in older adults,” Henry says.

The cognitive capacity to engage in logical decision-making is very different to “other types of capacities”.

“For example, being out on a Saturday night with your friends…being influenced by others in terms of drink and drugs, you’re more likely to engage in risk. You’re more likely to be impulsive in these emotionally-charged situations that are reward-oriented where peers are present and it’s harder to resist those kind of influences. That’s a very different kind of circumstance to making decisions about your health, engaging in political debates, or exercising your right to vote.”

Divided

We asked two groups of 16- and 17-year-olds for their thoughts on the matter. Here’s what they said:

The fifth year politics and society students at Oatlands College, Mount Merrion, Dublin, were divided on the issue.

“I think we’re sitting here in a politics class so everybody here, at least to a certain degree, has some sort of interest in politics and current affairs and how the world works, but that’s not universal,” says student Henry Murphy, who disagrees with the concept of lowering the voting age. “I think at this age we’re very susceptible to the opinions going around.”

Sean Manners agrees. “I feel once they get out of school and get into the real world and have a job and understand a lot of the issues in this country…. they’d know what to vote for.”

Aidan Coveney believes many of the fears associated with allowing younger voters to vote exist across all age groups. “The bureaucratic process of getting registered to vote ultimately does act as a filter for those who are uninformed, apathetic and flat out don’t care at all about politics”.

“I don’t think it really depends on age,” says Sean Thornton. “It just depends on the person. The qualities that uninterested 16-year-olds would have, they would be prevalent in every age.”

Feeling represented or not clearly matters to the students, and Edward Tyson feels younger citizens are unheard. “The representation of us is non-existent. Over the summer I was at a peaceful protest in Temple Bar…and the general aura of the staff and people in the pub towards the kids having a peaceful protest was scorn and dismissal. I feel that’s reflected as well in the political landscape.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Kal Scully. “I think that underage voters have often been neglected in what they want. I think the fact that there was a massive parade against climate change by us shows that we clearly don’t feel represented. I don’t think the opinions of younger people were taken into account very often in relation to the lockdowns.”

Shane Brady thinks 16-year-olds don’t have sufficient “political education” to be afforded the vote at that age. ”I don’t think people would know what they’re voting for, why they should vote, who they should vote for.”

Sergio Porcu agrees: “I think they’d definitely be influenced by the media, their parents or someone else. It wouldn’t be their thoughts.”

Misinformation

The teenagers as a class seem confident in their ability to distinguish reliable sources from potential sources of misinformation.

“Our generation grew up with the internet,” says Aidan Coveney. “We grew up tech savvy and we also know internet culture very well, so we’d definitely be able to differentiate between when someone is serious or when someone is trolling.”

Sam Sellen feels giving younger people the vote could prove to be a positive step towards gender equality. “Older people would have grown up in a situation where women wouldn’t have had as much power, or significantly less power. Young people have grown up in a society where there’s still gender inequality, but not to as great an extent as it was in, say, the 1980s. I think that definitely influences how young women feel about being able to vote or run for politics, but also young men who can see women… deserve to be active in politics and society as a whole, equal to men.”

Adam Hogan doesn’t believe all adult privileges should be treated the same.

“Voting is going to benefit younger people, so it’s a totally different issue to alcohol,” he says referring to the difference between benefit versus protection.

But Patrick Kenny disagrees. “I don’t think 16-year-olds have the right brain function yet,” he says, pointing to the fact that it takes much longer for the human brain to fully develop. “I don’t think it’s fair to just let a bunch of kids have a say in the government and how the country is shaped and run.”

Josh Garland believes it may not be in the Government’s best interests for the voting age to be lowered. “They got into Government based on the current voting system, so they probably wouldn’t want to try and introduce this and potentially risk their standing with a new voting audience. “

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In Grange Community School, Donaghmede, Dublin, the transition year and fifth year politics students are largely united in their scepticism about reducing the voting age.

Paige Feery doesn’t think it’s a good idea. “I just don’t think we’re mature enough yet. We don’t know enough yet.” But she does think a youth vote might help with gender equality “and there does need to be a change for women”, she adds.

Jake Bracken feels it’s important that the youth voice is heard, but says “I think a few people under the age of 18 are immature and shouldn’t really be able to make those choices yet.”

In fact Jake is concerned that disinterest and immaturity could cause younger voters to vote irresponsibly if given the vote. “I think spoiling votes would occur a lot more if you’re under the age of 18,” he says, with younger people believing the vote doesn’t affect them.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Vanessa Tyrrell, who feels that “a lot of 16-year-olds just wouldn’t have the interest.”

“I don’t even think we have the brain capacity to understand what’s best for us,” Patrik Garic says. “We underestimate how immature we are.”

Patrik also thinks his age group are too susceptible to the influence of social media. “Whatever is a trend a lot of people will follow.”

Chloe O’Sullivan agrees with Patrik, and says she feels a lack of confidence in personal judgement could lead young voters to lean heavily on what they see across the media for influence. “I think we are aware [of how things can be presented] but I don’t know if we’re aware enough to change how we’re doing it.”

Georgia Fields feels peer influence is likely to dictate how younger voters vote, rather than research. “They’d just see how most people around them are voting.”

For classmate Katie Eglinton, meanwhile, parental influence would be the biggest factor. “If my ma said she was going to vote for someone, I think I’d just vote for them.” Social media would also influence her. “If I saw them on Tik Tok and they looked sound I’d vote for them, just because they looked sound.”

Social media

Like many of his classmates Josh Keegan also fears that social media can create bandwagon sentiments. “They [white, middle-class teenagers] will go on social media and they’ll see stuff from other people from different countries about what’s happening and what it’s like for them, and I feel like they try to agree and try to relate to them which is not true, to be honest”.

When considering the right to vote versus other adult freedoms, such as being able to drink alcohol legally, Philips Vingris feels they’re incomparable. “Drinking is someone’s choice and it only impacts them, but voting could impact the future and hardworking people.”

And while all students value the idea of representation, they’re not convinced reducing the voting age is necessary to achieve this.

“You’re allowed to vote when you’re 18. This is not suppression of anyone,” Patrik Garic says. “You don’t have to like who you are represented by because you don’t agree with them. But we are all represented.”

Not having the vote doesn’t render students completely powerless, Ciaran Kavanagh says. “We have social media and we can use that platform to shed light on stuff. People don’t realise the power that we do have, and on social media you can start petitions and send it to government.”