Students say voting age should be reduced

That’s according to a mock referendum organised by A-level politics students at Chichester College.

They organised the poll, asking people to cast their votes on whether the voting age should be lowered from 18 to 16 – and the response was ‘Yes’ with more than 57% of the vote. Campaigning for the referendum took place from Monday 9 November for a week, with voting held online. The students, split into two campaign teams, put forward arguments for and against – and as part of their campaign they were tasked with producing campaign materials including posters, a 500 word manifesto and creating a campaign ‘website’ with video content.

The ‘Vote Yes’ campaign stated: “We believe giving 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote is vital. We are the future and the decisions made today affect our tomorrow. “The Government says we are mature enough to join the Armed Forces, pay tax, be a company director…so why can’t we express our political opinions through the polls?” On the other side of the argument, ‘Nah, Later, manifesto argued that young people deserve better than being rushed into voting and worry about extreme groups taking advantage of their perceived naivety: “As younger people, we are more vulnerable as not all our political opinions are made. “This means that our age group is the easiest to be targeted by extremist groups as our opinions are more open to being swayed.” Lecturer Philip Wilson said: “Being able to demonstrate how democracy and voting works in a ‘real’ situation is really important and it is a key part of their studies.

“We asked the students to pick a subject that is important to them and apply it to our mock ‘referendum’ – and the voting age is something they are extremely passionate about. “Running the referendum has given them an insight into campaign strategies and also meant they have had to research and consider both sides of the debate. I’ve been really impressed with the dedication they have shown.”