School referendum to take place on the 31st March
What is this school referendum about?
The school is having a referendum on reducing the voting age from eighteen to sixteen this Friday 31st March. This referendum asks the students and staff of Sandymount Park ETSS whether or not they would like to amend the constitution of Ireland. When the constitution was written in 1937, the voting age was set to 21 under article 16.1.2. This lead to the first voting age referendum in 1973 which subsequently had the changed the voting age. As a result of this referendum, over a hundred thousand extra citizens were enabled to vote in elections and referenda.
Organisers of this school referendum are hoping to take the results gathered and pass them onto the higher authorities; the Government of the Republic of Ireland. This could possibly influence the Government’s decision to hold another voting age referendum for Ireland.
Before making a decision on which way to vote in this school referendum, there is much more information you need to consider before making your choice. On top of the fact that other countries have lowered their age of legal voting, it is important to review the effects of this change, both good and bad.
Possible Positive Effects of Lowering the National Voting Age to 16
Some possible positive effects can be observed in Austria. Austria is one such country who changed their voting age to 16 more than a decade ago. In the first general election after the change of age, people under the age of 18 only had a 63% turnout, much lower than the national average in that election. It did get better as years went on and by 2017 that number had skyrocketed to a whopping 86.9%, nearly 25% higher than in 2008. This shows that it is becoming more accepted and normalised to be voting at such a young age and that young people are more inclined to engage in politics if given the opportunity to vote.
Furthermore, surveys have shown more amiability towards the EU in young voters in Austria causing a much higher projected turnout in any European elections or decisions. This will allow for better integration of EU policies and beliefs in Austria and any country that follows Austria in lowering the voting age.
In the context of our school, young voting is also proving to increase the amount of integration politics has in the curriculum of the education system. This means the new voters are more informed than any generation before them which will yield better and more thought out results in elections. This will enable secondary school students to become decision makers in educational policies.
Possible Negative Effects of Lowering the National Voting Age to 16
On the other hand, negatives can also be found from changing the voting age to sixteen. The most prominent downside of amending this article is the maturity of the demographic that would become enfranchised (able to vote).
Many studies have shown that teenagers at the age of sixteen and seventeen are not ready to vote. Dr. Tak Wing Chan from the UCL Institute of Education has given evidence that “research in neuroscience suggests that the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, is still undergoing major reconstruction and development during the teenage years”. This puts the reliability of teenage voters into question.
Secondly, the quality of votes could possibly be diluted by the influence parents have on a child in their late teenage years. Someone of this age is legally required to still live with their legal guardian(s) and this person is the one who has probably shaped most features of one’s life up to this point. If guardians have a strong political opinion their child might be strongly influenced by this. Though this is somewhat annulled by the secret ballot we hold here in Ireland, it would still deeply sway the likeliness of a child of 16 or 17 years old going against their parents’ views.
Making Your Decision
With all of this information put to you, you can now make a firm and independently formed decision on which way to vote in this referendum.