Amid the debate sparked by the EU elections over whether 16-year-olds should vote, a bolder proposal emerges — giving young teens, children, and babies the vote.
“Until recently, there was a myth that young people were apathetic,” says Daniel Meister, communications manager at The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI), “[but] the independence referendum in Scotland and the marriage equality referendum in Ireland scotched that.”
This June, Belgian and German 16- and 17-year-olds cast their ballots in the European parliamentary elections for the first time, joining Austrian, Scottish, and Maltese teens. But whilst campaigns advocating for a lower voting age have been gaining momentum since the 1990s, 16-year-olds in 22 EU member states, including Ireland, still lack voting rights.
In 2022, a bill to lower the voting in Ireland failed to make it past the country’s senate. Meister points out that had it been passed, around 130,000 Irish 16- and 17-year-olds would have been able to participate in this year’s European elections. “This was a missed opportunity to strengthen Irish democracy,” he says.
Campaigners argue that lowering the voting age could help shore up support for the idea of democracy. Polls, including a recent Ipsos KnowledgePanel survey, consistently show that support for democracy across European countries is at an all-time low.
Do kids want to be counted in?
“Secondary school kids deserve to be taken more seriously by society,” says Eva, a 12-year-old from Greece. “Plus, being able to vote about the causes we care deeply about would teach us the importance of actively participating in our communities.”
Eva is especially keen to vote for Greece’s next prime minister but will miss the chance in the 2027 national elections, as Greece’s minimum voting age is 17. She will likely vote for the first time in the 2029 European elections, when she will be 19.
Yet by 2029, national and international policies impacting Eva’s future will have already been determined by decision-makers significantly older than her. Greece stands out as having one of Europe’s largest ageing populations: over 65s make up 23 per cent of the population, according to a recent Eurostat report.
Athena, 13, takes a more cautious stance than Eva. “Since voting is a huge responsibility, 15 should be the minimum age to be able to vote,” she says, concerned that younger children are “too easily influenced by parents and teachers”.
Count kids in
Advocates for lowering the voting age to 16, including Meister from the NYCI, say that doing so is a matter of consistency. In most EU member states, 16-year-olds are given the responsibilities of entering the workforce, paying taxes and leaving school, so their inclusion in political life makes sense.
But whilst some European countries are considering giving 16-year-olds the vote, some want to go even further: extending voting rights to young teens, children, and even babies.
For Professor John Wall, a childhood studies scholar at Rutgers University Camden and author of Give Children the Vote: On Democratizing Democracy, it makes the most sense for voting to be an ageless birthright.
“People would start their lives out being given the idea that their voices count whoever they are,” Wall argues.
“At the moment, we tell people for the first quarter of their lives that their voices don’t count, that they’re not capable of exercising decision-making,” he says, explaining that under 18s, who amount to around one quarter of the global population, are the largest disenfranchised group in the world.
In the absence of surveys asking kids what they think about voting — an irony not lost on Wall — there is some evidence to suggest that 16- and 17-year-olds are enthusiastic voters when given the chance.
In Austria, where the voting age has been 16 since 2007, national electoral lists consistently indicate a higher voter turnout among 16- and 17-year-olds than among 18- and 21-year-olds.
Broadening the franchise would revive democracy, Wall believes.
“Voting always changes whenever a new group gains the franchise. It looked very different when it was only white or landowning men who had the vote,” he says.
Europe’s children might prioritise voting on environmental and social justice issues, much like child activists and young adult Europeans. In a recent survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), European under-29s named the climate crisis as their biggest concern, whereas older generations said they were more concerned about immigration.
Leave kids out of it
While the idea of 16-year-olds voting may be controversial, it’s hardly radical. But many might find ludicrous the idea of young kids having a say in politics. Images of a two-year-old scribbling on a ballot card spring to mind.
To address these challenges, Wall proposes a proxy voting system where parents or guardians cast votes on behalf of young children and babies. Meanwhile, Cambridge University politics professor David Runciman suggests the age of six as a tentative threshold.
But Tatiana Gorney, a child psychologist for almost two decades, is adamant that children under 16 are not equipped with the competence and life experiences needed for voting.
“To participate in voting processes, I believe a person needs to have a level of cognitive and emotional development,” Gorney argues.
“Governments should be obliged to include children’s opinions in their policies, but this does not mean children should vote,” she says. “Children under 16 have not yet developed mature ‘hot cognition’ – reasoning that is emotionally regulated. This means that their decisions may be influenced by peer pressure.”
Wall has heard such arguments countless times. Sighing, he reiterates that as adult voters, we are not tested for competence and that, in this post-truth era, we are often swayed by emotions rather than thorough political analysis.
The rise of authoritarianism is a threat to the EU: in the run-up to elections, EU campaigning stressed younger generations’ responsibility to vote “to protect democracy”.
For youth suffrage campaigners, lowering the voting age – whether to 16 or 0 – could be the solution.
Feature Image: Three children playing in a park. Photo credits: Eliana Nunes.