Grey-area adulthood: Should 16-yearolds have the vote?

In light of Nicola Sturgeon's recent comments, Gracie asks: at what age should we be able to excercise our right to vote?

Gracie Adelina May English Literature, Third Year

Should sixteen-year-olds have the vote? The response I felt instinctively was a pretty certain "yes", but being so close to the age of those-sixteen-year-olds in question, it's worth unpacking intuition. Adulthood, maturity, and responsibility are some of the issues that come to the surface when considering what constitutes the right to vote. Who has earned it? Age being the determiner is a slippery concept. Alongside the increased volume of information at today’s youth’s fingertip, there is now mass-media exposure of current issues. The world is getting faster and information is reaching younger audiences. The socio-political issues I still feel most passionately about were first presented to me in aesthetical- ly pleasing Instagram feeds when I was fourteen. The responsibility I feel to vote started forming when I was young. Would I vote similarly now to what I would have then? Yes. Have other people drastically changed their political opinions since they were a young teenager? Definitely.

It is not fair to say that all young

Information, news, and media are reaching younger audiences more than ever before, and yet the electoral weight is held by those who this new media often misses people are more politically charged due to social media. It would be oversimplifying the matter to state that YouTube videos or Instagram feeds play a part in someone’s vote (or believe they are purely reliable sources). However, there are political undercurrents in most, if not all, of the media we consume. There is always an intended audience, an algorithm warping viewer’s perception, a social media footprint forming. No post is made in a vacuum.

Occupying the other end of this spectrum, there are predictions that there will be over 13 million people aged sixty-five and over in England and Wales by 2032. People are concerned that, for the first time in almost a century, we have an aging population. Birth rates are falling, and life expectancies are increasing. Information, news, and media are reaching younger audiences than ever before, and yet the electoral weight is held by those who this new media often misses. There is what feels like an increased space between political awakenings and political agency.

The question at the core of this issue is this: what is it about giving sixteen year olds the vote that threatens the institution of democracy? Is it the elusive term, the 'Age of Adulthood', defined only by laws, that is undermined? Or would society, for the first time ever, be polling the votes of the most trivialised group?

What I am most interested in here is the problem-group ‘youngsters’. The young-adults in the grey-area; between the boundaries of accountability and respect. Adulthood or maturity are never quantifiable numbers on a page. Being able to drink legally does not necessarily bestow an overwhelming sense of wisdom or gravitas upon people. It is more useful to consider that the notion of ‘adulthood’ is only concrete through the laws upholding it. Some of these include: buying a lottery ticket; joining the military, using a meat slicer at work, adopting a child and skydiving. The same level of ‘maturity’ is supposedly required for all the above-listed actions. In legislation and in the individual, there are different responsibilities available for the adult.

By enabling people under the age of adulthood to vote, the accepted notions of ‘maturity’ or ‘adulthood’ begin to wobble.

As Nicola Sturgeon's recent gender reform law suggests, not only should sixteen-year-olds be able to change their gender, they could also be allowed to drink. Sturgeon then backtracked: as evidently the age of alcohol consumption is too fraught an issue. This is perhaps saying more about Britain’s drinking culture than the responsibility of the youths involved.

The question at the core of this issue is this: what is it about giving sixteen-year -olds the vote that threatens the institution of democracy

That is really the core of the issue. Young people want agency over the laws that will affect them for the rest of their lives. This would balance the

Young people want agency over the laws that will affect them for the rest of their lives majority held by the growing ‘greyvote’ that dominated elections (like that of 2019) and result in a more comprehensive political education in schools. This should matter with or without the vote. Even those who can vote at eighteen do not necessarily do it with an informed view. It is often adults dismissing the cause for a younger voting age, as it appears young people are apathetic or indifferent to the voting systemnot utilising their right. Yet surely responsibility and maturity should be proved instead of decided - and responsibility breeds where it is given. It is unlikely the young adults in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are more ‘mature’ than those in England. It seems, however, that what is left unsteady in this debate is the very construct of adulthood. There is always fear regarding who earns the elusive notion of responsibility. Perhaps this ‘problem’ group will have more respect for the voting system and its policies once it is shown in return.