The Youth Gone Mild?

The findings of a National Assembly consultation suggest that while a majority of young people
support lowering the voting age to 16, their enthusiasm is perhaps more muted than expected.
(Pic : National Assembly of Wales via Flickr)

Just before the Assembly broke up for summer recess, the Assembly Commission and its youth initiative, Your Assembly, published a wide-ranging report on young people's attitudes towards politics and specific issues like lowering the voting age to 16 (pdf) - see also : The X-Factor and "Devo Wuh?" Young attitudes towards Welsh devolution.

16 and 17 year olds were given a vote in 2014's Scottish independence referendum and will also vote in next year's Scottish Parliament election and future Scottish local government elections. That won't happen in Wales because the Assembly doesn't have the power to extend the voting franchise, but the Assembly's own electoral arrangements will/may be devolved as part of the next Wales Bill – unfortunately, it won't be passed in time for May 2016.

10,375 people aged 11-25 took part in the consultation between November 2014 and June 2015, generating 9,747 responses – an Assembly record. Numerous events were also held around the country in school, colleges, universities etc.

What did the report find?

• 53% support lowering the voting age to 16 in all UK elections. 29% said no and 18% don't know. A majority of 18-21 year olds said no (46%-41%), while support was strongest amongst 11-13 year olds.
• 77% believe school or college was the most important environment in which to learn about politics. The internet was the second most popular option (34%), closely followed by "the media". Only 22 people said political parties, and just 4 said the National Assembly.
• 69% believe "knowing more about politics" and how it affects their lives is the single most important factor which would boost turnout amongst young people. Equally popular options were "knowing more about the voting process" and "more information about political parties". Only 36% said "more contact with politicians in their local area". Only 1 person wanted a young persons' manifesto and just 3 respondents wanted a Youth Assembly (though results might've been different had they been included as full options, not write-ins).
• 79% believe it was important young people learn about politics and voting systems; just 8% disagreed.
• 67% didn't know they could register to vote at 16.
• 51% said polling stations were their most preferred method of voting, 46% said online voting as their first preference.
• 58% would vote if an election were held tomorrow in which they were eligible to vote. 23% wouldn't vote. Most of those who said no said so based on a lack of understanding or knowledge.

What can we conclude from this?

Has there been too much emphasis on the voting age debate and not enough focus on what young
people really want : a good political education and enough information to figure things out for themselves.
(Pic : National Assembly of Wales via Flickr)

Enthusiasm for lowering the voting age to 16 is a lot weaker amongst young people than some politicians might care to admit. 53% isn't an overwhelming majority, even if it trumps the 29% who said no. I would've expected much higher – 60-70% - to conclusively suggest 16-17 year olds want the vote.

What's also clear is young people want to find things out for themselves. We live in an information age so that's only natural, but it's absolutely right that when it comes to voting you make your own mind up based on the facts and policy proposals – young people get that, so there's hope after all.

What's also unsurprising is that finding out information online is slightly more popular than the mainstream media – which you would think is good news for me, but I suspect it refers to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Despite that, all recent elections have been hailed as "the social media election" but it's never really come to pass.

There's been too much focus on the findings in relation to lowering the voting age and not enough emphasis on the the most important finding - and strongest views of young people - which concerns the need for a political education. Even more importantly (perhaps slightly surprisingly), young people agree that the National Assembly and politicians in their area are not best placed to do that.

That makes sense. If, as a constituent, one of my AMs or MP were spending an inordinate chunk of their time touring schools and not doing the job they were elected to do I would be pretty annoyed; likewise I doubt young people want to be sat in a room being given a lecture by the very people who are making voters lose faith in politics in the first place.

Having said that, I genuinely expected young people to have been more enthusiastic about politicians paying them attention, as well as showing more enthusiasm for a Youth Assembly (which barely registered as a survey answer), but there you go.

Getting politicians to talk to you doesn't (and shouldn't) count as "political education" so it comes back to the school curriculum. Presumably this can be worked in to the Donaldson reforms as the new school curriculum takes shape over the coming years. A proper course in citizenship and politics as part of PSE/PHSE – or even mainstreamed into subjects like maths, languages, geography and history - wouldn't go amiss.

So to sum up, this has been a unique and invaluable exercise, but I'm not sure whether there's convincing support for lowering the voting age amongst young people. That's not because young people don't want it. It's that more young people want to be properly informed on how to wield a power before being given that power.