A report proposing to lower the voting age in the Australian Capital Territory in Canberra, Australia, to 16 years was tabled in the Legislative Assembly of the Territory on 26 September 2007 and rejected. [21] The voting age for local elections was lowered to 16 in some states shortly after 2000. [9] Three federal states had made the reduction in 2003 (Burgenland, Carinthia and Styria)[9], and in May 2003 Vienna became the fourth. [26] Salzburg followed suit,[27][28] and thus the total number reached at least five of the nine federal states at the beginning of 2005. [29] As a result of provincial law, the lowering of the municipal voting age in the provinces of Burgenland, Salzburg and Vienna also resulted in a lowering of the voting age in these states. [28] Due to the late date of this court order, it is not possible to change the programming of the electronic ballot so that 17-year-old voters can vote on touchscreen voting machines. A provisional ballot will be issued. On February 27, 2006, the Power inquiry report called for the lowering of the voting age and the age of eligibility for election to the House of Commons to 16. [51] On the same day, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown indicated in an article in the Guardian that he was in favour of a reduction, provided it was accompanied by effective political education. [52] On 20 November 2013, Malta lowered the voting age for local elections from 18 to 16 from 2015. The proposal received broad support from the government and opposition, social scientists and youth organisations.
In Luxembourg, voting is compulsory from the age of 18. A government proposal to introduce optional voting for people aged 16 and 17 was rejected by 81% of voters in a referendum in June 2015. In September 2011, it was announced that the voting age for the Scottish independence referendum would probably be lowered from 18 to 16. [60] This was approved by the Scottish Parliament in June 2013. [61] In the 2000s, several proposals to lower the voting age were made in U.S. states, including California, Florida, and Alaska,[13] but none came to fruition. In Oregon, Senate Resolution 22 was introduced to lower the voting age from 18 to 16. Also in British Columbia, Canada, Mira Blakely and Nahira G-S launched their own Vote16 campaign on November 25, 2018 and now have the unanimous support of the UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities) and an NDP convention, and are now waiting for it to be raised and passed by the NDP in the legislature. [14] A national reduction was proposed in 2005 in Canada[15] and the Australian state of New South Wales,[16] but these proposals were not adopted. In May 2009, Danish MEP Mogens Jensen presented an initiative to lower the voting age in Europe to 16 at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
[17] Before the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, the voting age was 21 or older in almost all countries. In 1946, Czechoslovakia became the first state to lower the voting age to 20, and by 1968 a total of 17 countries had lowered the voting age. [2] Many countries, particularly in Western Europe, lowered the voting age to 18 in the 1960s and 1970s, starting with the United Kingdom (1969)[3] with the United States (26th Amendment) (1971), Canada, West Germany (1972), Australia (1974), France (1974) and others that soon followed. Until the end of the 20th century. 18 was by far the most common age to vote. However, some countries have an electoral age of 20 or more, and some countries have a lower voting age of 16 or 17. [4] It has been argued that if young men could be drafted into the war at the age of 18, they should be able to vote at 18. [5] An amendment to a bill extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (H.R. 4249) extended the right to vote in national, state, and local elections to citizens 18 years of age and older. Until now, the determination of the voting age has been the responsibility of each State.
Despite signing the law (P.L. 91-285), President Richard Nixon issued a statement in June 1970 questioning the constitutionality of the amendment, saying: “While I strongly support the 18-year vote, I believe—along with most of the nation`s leading constitutional experts—that Congress does not have the power to enact it by simple law, rather, it requires a constitutional amendment. This paved the way for a review by the Department of Justice and a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, many miners` rights activists advocate lowering the voting age to 17 or even 16. They argue that this will give teens the chance to get involved in politics early on and create lifelong voters. On Tuesday, March 5, the House of Representatives voted on a bill introduced by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) to lower the voting age to 16. NYRA has just received another confirmation of voting age from the High School Democrats of America! HSDA is the fourth branch of the Democratic Party to advocate a reduction. Calls to lower the voting age to 16 have again been made by school climate strike activists in several countries (including Germany and the UK).
[18] [19] The following are the political parties and other campaign organizations that have advocated lowering the voting age or advocating its abolition. December 11, 2006 – The Maryland Court of Appeals filed its formal written statement in Lamone v. Capozzi, the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of early voting. One of the issues addressed by the Court was whether early voting, even if found unconstitutional, could still be used in a primary. In answering this question, the Court concluded that “primaries within the meaning of `all elections to be held in that State` are included in Article 1(1)”. This article of the Constitution also stipulates that a person must be at least 18 years of age to vote.
