Voting Age Report
Children and young people eager to vote at 16
WA children and young people have proven they are passionate and informed on key political topics and want the opportunity to vote earlier in the latest survey on the issue.
The ‘Voting Age Survey Report’ launched today by WA Commissioner for Children and Young People, Jacqueline McGowan-Jones, asked young people whether young people aged 16-18 should have the right to vote and why.
Of the 1780 children and young people that completed the survey, about 60 per cent of participants aged 15 and under said they would like to vote, with 49 per cent indicating they thought it should be optional.
Respondents aged 16-25 were more evenly split with 52 per cent believing they should have been able to vote at 16 and 48 per cent against the idea.
Sixteen-year-olds can work, drive and pay taxes – so why shouldn’t they have the right to vote? These were some of the key themes that emerged from the survey.
Many argued their youth brought fresh perspective and felt it was unfair they didn’t have a say in who would make the decisions that would profoundly impact their future, whereas others felt 16-year-olds lacked the maturity and life experience needed to decide who should govern.
Recommendations from the report include:
• Consider a pilot project for children and young people to vote in local government elections.
• Implement comprehensive civics education in the school curriculum.
• Encourage voting pre-registration within schools at age 16.
• Foster youth engagement and participation programs – encourage political participation and civics responsibility from a young age.
• Collaboration from government bodies, non-government organisations and youth organisations on outreach campaigns.
• Develop online voter education tools for first-time voters, providing non-partisan information about candidates, policies and how to navigate the voting process.
• If the age is lowered in future, voting would not need to be mandatory for 16 and 17-year-olds.
Children aged under 18, and young people aged under 24, were encouraged to share their views on the voting age in a survey from July-September this year. Read the full report.