Current movements to extend the franchise

• Those under 18 (although 16 and 17 year olds can now vote in some elections in Wales and Scotland) are still excluded from voting
• Prisoners (although Scotland now allows some prisoners to vote in Scottish elections) are excluded from voting
• Those sectioned under the Mental Health Act
• Peers currently serving in the House of Lords are not allowed to vote (Peers not sitting in the Lords are permitted to vote).
• Who are effective prevented from voting?

  The homeless as they lack a permanent address
• 16-17 year olds were given the right to vote in Scottish elections after 2014 and to vote in the Welsh Senedd in 2020
• Voting turnout among the 18–24-year-old age group is very low. Lowering the voting age may encourage more people to vote and become engaged with politics.
• The internet and social media now enable young people to be better informed about politics.
• If one is old enough to serve in the army, get married or pay tax, one should be old enough to vote.
• The radicalism of the very young could act as a useful balance to the extreme conservatism of elderly voters.
• People of 16 and 17 years old are too young to be able to make rational judgements.
• Many issues are too complex for younger people to understand.
• It is argued by some that the very young tend to be excessively radical as they have not had enough experience to consider issues carefully.
• ‘Votes at 16’ is a coalition of a number of different groups that believe the franchise should be extended to 16- and 17-year- olds across the whole UK in all elections
• Which parties had lowering the voting age to 16 in their 2019 manifesto?


  Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green Party