The UK says it will lower its voting age to 16. Could the U.S. follow suit? : NPR

People pass in front of a sign for a polling station during the local council elections in Folkestone, England, in May. The British government announces plans to reduce the age of voting to 16 years.

Andrew Avechison / in Pictures via Getty Images

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Andrew Avechison / in Pictures via Getty Images

The British government claims that it will present legislation to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16, as part of a series of reforms aimed at modernizing British democracy.

The officials announced on Thursday a number of what they called “seismic changes”, which include allowing bank cards to be used as a voter identifier and tightening rules on political donations.

The most titular change, however, is that young people aged 16 and 17 will be authorized to vote from the next general elections. He must be detained by August 2029, although the Prime Minister can choose to appeal a earlier.

“We cannot hold our democracy for acquired, and by protecting our elections against abuse and by stimulating participation, we will strengthen the foundations of our society for the future,” said Vice-Prime Minister Angela Rayner in a statement.

The Labor Party campaigned in part on the reduction of the voting age last year – in an election with only 59.7%, the lowest since 2001. The reforms must adopt parliament to become the law, which seems likely that the Labor Party does not have a majority in the House of Commons, and the Chamber of Lords does not traditionally block the promised invoices in the Parture of the Master Party.

Scotland and Wales already authorize young people aged 16 and 17 to vote in certain local elections. This newly proposed change will allow some 1.6 million adolescents to vote at all British elections, according to Reuters.

According to UNICEF, around 90% of countries and territories around the world have an age of voting aged 18 or over. The United Kingdom joins a small but increasing list of those who reduced it to 16 and / or 17, including Australia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Greece and Indonesia.

A third of the American states allow young people aged 17 to vote in the primary elections if they will be 18 years old at the time of the general elections. And a dozen American cities – most of them in Maryland – allow people to vote, whether in the elections of school councils or all local elections, according to the National Youth Rights Association, which defends young people.

Alberto Medina, the communications team directed at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Commitment (Circle), a University Tofts program focused on the political life of young people in the United States, is encouraged to see Great Britain expanding the voice of young people and participation in the political process.

“It’s exciting to see this happening at the national level,” said Medina. “And I think it is something that is really worth paying attention when we think about how to continue to improve the participation of young people here in the United States”

Voters have voted on a high school in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, on election day 2024. Several cities in Maryland and other states allow young people aged 16 and 17 to vote in certain local elections.

Graeme Sloan for the Washington Post / Via Getty Images

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Graeme Sloan for the Washington Post / Via Getty Images

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

The drop in voting age is a division problem, both in the United Kingdom and the United States

General criticism is that 16 -year -olds are not mature enough to participate in the elections, both in terms of brain development and political knowledge.

It is also a politically delicate subject because of the concerns that young voters Support the liberal parties on the conservatives, in accordance with recent generational trends. Although Medina notes, it is not necessarily a clear cut, especially in the United States: While voters under the age of 30 have long been a bastion for Democrats, they have embarked heavily to President Trump in 2024.

Age age defenders say that 16 -year -old children can also or even better informed than other voters because they are at school, where they can learn more about the elections, discuss current events and obtain support for recording.

And they say that if 16 -year -olds can drive, work and join the army, they should be able to vote. The Vietnam War, which wrote millions of Americans as young as 18, was an important factor in reducing the age of voting from 21 to 18 years in 1971, notes Medina.

In the United Kingdom, it is legal for the 16-year-old young people to join the army as soldiers (with parental consent) and work full time, which means that some are already paying taxes. This is one of the main arguments in favor of change.

“I think if you pay, you should have the opportunity to say what you want to spend, in what direction the government should go,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday.

But criticism, including in the Conservative Party, stressed that 16-year-olds cannot legally buy a glass or a lottery ticket, marry or present themselves in the United Kingdom elections and they doubt that the change will actually lead more young people in the polls.

A recent survey of 500 young people aged 16 and 17 by Merlin’s strategy for ITV News revealed that only 18% said they would certainly vote if there was an election tomorrow. But support for the drop in voting age has been more uniformly divided, with 51% in favor.

What do the data say?

In the United Kingdom, a study on the elections of the Welsh Parliament in 2021 – the first in which young people aged 16 and 17 were authorized to vote – described it as “false beginning”, arguing that the time of the Cavid -19 pandemic disturbed both the education system and the electoral process.

But a study in 2023 of the University of Edinburgh noted that young younger voters in Scotland “retain a habit” to vote in the elections once they start and participate in a greater number than older voters.

Although the data on the impact of the younger vote is relatively limited – because it is so rare – Medina says that “the domain has known for a very long time that the vote is to form habits”.

“The more you start, the more likely you are continuing to do it throughout your life,” he said. “And we have evidence that when young people get involved in this process earlier, especially if they are still in school … This increases participation. This increases the participation rate.”

This is also supported by studies of Denmark and Austria. And in the United States, six of the seven states with the highest youth participation rate of the 2024 elections allow a pre-registration for voters at the age of 16, according to Circle’s analysis.

“There is a little data that shows that when young people aged 16 or 17 have the possibility of doing so, they intensify and they participate at least at levels of the same or even higher than older adults in the community,” said Medina.

Some American states allow adolescents to vote in the primary elections if they will be 18 years old in time for the general.

Jae C. Hong / AP

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Jae C. Hong / AP

What is the play of play in the United States?

The United States does not seem ready to follow in the footsteps of the United Kingdom as soon as it is.

“If you look at the national political landscape, it is more difficult to see a change in this magnitude succeed,” said Medina.

Public opinion surveys – although rare – show considerable opposition to the decline in the age of voting. A 2019 hill-Harrisx The survey noting that 75% of registered voters opposed 17 -year -old enamels (and even more than 16 years old, 16 -year -old children can vote).

Democratic legislators have repeatedly introduced legislation that would reduce the American age from 18 to 16 years in recent years, without success.

And the expansion of access to the ballot can be even more difficult under the Trump administration and a congress controlled by the Republicans, which has been criticized for having adopted laws which, according to the voting rights, will do the opposite.

But the change occurs at the local level, with cities of California in New Jersey among the last people to adopt lower age limits.

It is a victory for defenders, who say that young voters should be able to weigh on the questions closest to their home, from school funding to community security. The local objective is more than a simple political feasibility, says Medina.

“It is a way to give young people a voice in our democracy and to recognize the fact that they are already affected by politicians,” he said.