What’s wrong with allowing 16-year-olds to vote?
We really don’t have a lot of solid data to bolster either side’s arguments
When my UPEI political science class on parties and elections tackled the thorny question of whether 16- and 17-year-olds should be able to vote in elections, there was no shortage of opinions. I started off by asking two pertinent questions: What problem is lowering the voting age trying to fix and, secondly, what harm would it do?
There were, of course, many other queries and plenty of thoughtful comments and lively discussion. Alas, there was no real consensus for or against changing the voting age. In fact, the students had more questions than answers.
I essentially identified the problem at hand as a disturbingly low voter turnout rate in Canada. And that participation rate has been declining sharply since 1988 (when it stood at 75 per cent). It barely broke 61 per cent in the 2011 federal election (and the provincial numbers for voter turnout are shockingly worse, with the exception of P.E.I.).
There are a handful of arguments against allowing 16-year-olds to vote for legal, educational and political reasons.
One of the central objections is that 16-year-olds lack the requisite civic or political maturity to vote — that is, they don’t have sufficient knowledge of Canadian politics, policy issues and party platforms and leaders.
Not surprisingly, there are an equal number of arguments in favour of lowering the voting age. Many of them revolve around boosting voter turnout, ensuring that politicians pay attention to the issues (like the climate emergency) of younger Canadians and instilling in youth a habit of early voting to sustain our democracy over the long term.
It is worth pointing out here that political parties in Canada, at both the federal and provincial level, have their own electoral agendas when it comes to lowering the voting age.
Indeed, parties on the political left tend to embrace the idea because they surmise that younger voters will naturally gravitate toward their progressive policy platforms. Those on the right, however, tend to oppose the change so as to block the left-leaning parties from benefitting from such a measure.
Call me a cynical political scientist, but I’m just not convinced that those advocating for or against lowering the age of voting are doing so in the absence of electoral motives.
Now, does the general public itself support lowering the voting age? According to a 2016 Angus Reid poll, the answer is a resounding no (not even among younger voters). In fact, 75 per cent of respondents overall were strongly opposed to lowering the voting age to 16.
But what was really interesting was that 66 per cent of those in the 18-34 age range also objected to such a move. It was less surprising that those 55 and older rejected the idea by a whopping
82 per cent.
The fact of the matter is that we really don’t have a lot of solid data to bolster either side’s arguments. There has been some statistical evidence from Germany, which does allow voting at 16, showing that turnout numbers have increased by 5 to 8 per cent. But then there is a drop-off in turnout in subsequent elections for those in the 21-30 age range.
Obviously, the dismal 32 per cent turnout for those aged 16 and 17 in P.E.I.’s fall 2016 electoral reform plebiscite is not encouraging. There is just no way to sugarcoat that awful participation rate. And that figure is even more problematic when you recall that Elections P.E.I. undertook a youth mobilization campaign, made it easier to vote online and by phone and allowed for a week-long advance poll.
I’ll be honest with you, I’m not exactly sure where I stand on lowering the voting age. When I listen to young people speak on matters of a political nature, I’m often impressed with their knowledge and level of understanding. But then I think about the fact that so many voters in the 18- to 25-year-old range have completely tuned out of politics altogether and just can’t be bothered.
Yet, if there was data from those countries permitting voting at 16 confirming a trend toward higher voter turnout and youth engagement in politics in general, then I would certainly lean toward supporting the idea. But given the historically low turnout rates by that 18-25 age cohort in Canada, I’d like to see the data first.
Along with the statistical voting info, I would also make two other suggestions. First, any move to implement voting at 16 should be accompanied by a mandatory civics education course (with a passing grade) at the high school level. Secondly, it wouldn’t hurt to first test the waters of youth voting at the municipal level to gauge the interest and turnout of 16- and 17-yearolds.
I realize that these recommendations are not a perfect solution. But at least we would have some hard data to work with going forward.