Laura Darnley
Speech given to ESRC Knowledge Exchange Event, Monday 30th November
Tonight I’m going to address electoral reform and how this can be used to engage more young people
in politics. In the last General Election only 43 per cent of people aged 18-24 voted, but I believe that
lowering the voting age to 16 for referendums and implementing online voting would help rectify this
lack of participation when it comes to the ballot.
I propose votes at 16 for referendums because it helps ease young people into thee voting system.
Rather than being asked to decide what’s best for the economy, education and healthcare all in one
hit, they are instead given one or two relatively simple yet contentious questions which will help them
establish their own opinions and beliefs when it comes to politics. The Scottish referendum which has
an 89 per cent young voter turnout is an example of how effective referendums can be when engaging
young people.
Whilst referendums may be irregular events, the importance is they get young people voting, and
research from the Electoral Commission shows that if you vote once for something, you’re more likely
to vote again.
I also support online voting in all elections. We live in a world where everything is designed to be as
convenient as possible so how come our electoral system remains so antiquated. Internet voting has
successfully been implemented in Estonia and Switzerland showing that it can be done. Internet voting
would make it easier for first time voters who might otherwise not bother to go out, but it would also
increase voter turnout across the board. In Europe, the UK has the highest percentage of people aged
over 55 who use the internet daily, suggesting that both the young and older members of our society
would be open to and benefit from internet voting.