Festival fans forgot to vote
YOUNG people overwhelmingly supported Britain remaining in the EU – and many now complain they have been betrayed by the Brexitbacking older generation.
But how many twenty-somethings actually voted in the referendum?
Among the young revellers at Glastonbury festival this weekend, some simply forgot to cast their ballot. In a straw poll of 50 festivalgoers aged 18 to 30, 29 said they had voted Remain – but 21 admitted they did not vote at all.
Some claimed they had missed the deadline to apply for a postal vote or forgotten to send one off, while others blamed the authorities for not embracing online voting.
Ashlee Waton, 22, from Edinburgh said: ‘I would have voted In. Now I feel guilty about not voting. The system is part of the problem. Younger people think and do things online, not on paper.’ Rachael Burns, 24, from Glasgow, agreed. ‘I just can’t believe what’s happened,’ she said. ‘I so wish I’d voted.’
Their friend Jack Whittam, 26, from Reading, insisted he had planned to vote Remain but failed to send off his postal ballot in time. ‘My mum agreed to do a proxy vote but then I forgot the paperwork. It’s a dreadful result all round.’
Our survey only found one young Brexit supporter, and she too had failed to cast her ballot.
Sarah Gillibrand, a 19-year-old media and business student from Liverpool, felt Britain could emulate America, which ‘isn’t doing too badly’. She said: ‘I was told there would be a polling station at Glastonbury. I brought along my polling card only to find there wasn’t one.
‘If younger people are to engage with politics there has to be reform of the system so that it’s possible to vote online.’
The Glastonbury survey echoes the findings of a poll carried out in Britain by YouGov on the day of the referendum. This showed younger adults were far less likely to vote than the older generation, even though the decision was likely to affect them for many years to come.
Only 73% of the 18- to 24-year-olds questioned said they were certain to vote or had already sent off postal votes, compared with 86% of pensioners.
There are no official figures on voter age for Thursday’s referendum but YouGov research suggests just 43% of 18- to 24-year-olds took part in Britain’s 2015 General Election.