Should 16-17 year olds been able to vote in the EU referendum?
 

Discuss...

No.

Yes, and other than actually calling it in the first place (which should never have happened), David Cameron will rightly regret not granting them the vote.

A lot of 16/17 year olds are intelligent enough and know more than a lot of older people who have voted, considering this vote is to do with our generations future then yes, they do deserve to vote

No

Considering it'll affect them 50 years into the future, most certainly. Anyone who thinks all 16 year olds are stupid and uninformed need only look at the people who've just voted. If they can vote in Scottish elections they can vote in this.

x2

Yes, myself and many of my friends are all very annoyed that we weren't allowed to vote because we're 17 yet we still have to pay adult price for transport tickets, concerts etc. How can you say we are not mature enough to decide on a vote yet we are mature enough to drive, work etc.?

Doubt it would have had much affect. Didn't 18-24 have the lowest turnout?

Crazy isn't it? You can get married, have children but you can't vote :conf:

Yeah it only had 36% turnout. So this would probably only chuck in about 200,000 more voters under such turnouts. For all of the haranguing of the "pension vote" there could be a lot more done to engage young people.

The voting age should be lowered permenantly IMO

No

No

Good to see all these reasons why for the no side.

No.

The whole "this referendum should never have happened" attitude is emblematic of the EU's approach to democracy.

No, not unless the voting age is 16/17.

Considering you can get married and join the army at 16, you should be able to vote too

16-17 year olds can get married and join army in the UK?

That´s too young imo.

Only 36% of 18-24 year olds voted.

They only have themselves to blame for all this.

They are far too busy on facebook posting their selfies half naked on their beds to even consider getting out of their beds let alone going to vote.

But if the politicians want to reach out to the youngsters then simply turn McDonalds into polling stations and offer them a free happy meal.

Yes.

Absolutely.

YES.

Good thing there aren't any 16 and 17 year olds on this forum for you to patronise further, Johnny

Thank you for tarring us with the same brush and potentially destroying our future :)

2 years literally makes 0 difference

Trust me Johnny there are plenty in their twenties and thirties doing that as well.

:clap1:

Not sure. Whatever the cut-off age it is going to be arbitrary. There are some 16 year olds wiser and better fit to vote than some 30 or 40 year olds. :shrug:

I agree there are some sensible teenagers. Tom for example. Great poster with great awareness of what is going on in the world. But having said that he is sadly outnumbered.

Absolutely yes and i said this right from the start.

They would have been able to vote in the general election in 2020 and for sure should have had the chance to have a say in their futures as to this referendum.

Some 16 year olds are still in High School, so what happens there?

Should we also send 16 year olds to an adult prison?

Honestly what bizarro-world is everyone else living in where they don't realise that these things apply to the majority of people of ALL AGES? Where are all of these intelligent, politically aware 40/50/60 year olds? Most of them are still pig ignorant, it has nothing to do with age.

Fixed up your post

I personally don't think so. I think (most) 16 year olds are too easily pressured into just listening to what their friends are doing and I personally don't think (most) 16 year olds are mature enough to make a big decision like voting. I am a completely different person to what I was when I was 16, and I think that is pretty similar with most people.

Fixed it more :hee:

Yes but its been the same for all of us, it actually got reduced from 21 to 18 when i got my first vote and i have voted ever since, getting a vote is a privilege and we should all use it , not just when it suits us.

Again this applies to most people throughout their lives, not just teens.

And IMO this is largely meaningless; I was more or less the same person at 21 as I was at 16 and I had been able to vote for 3 years. I am a completely different person now to who I was at 21... and I would say that's true for most 30+ year olds? Does that mean the voting age should be raised to 21+?