I am always horrified and depressed by the number of people who don't bother to vote here in the UK.
Here in the UK every household gets a registration form once a year (usually late Fall/early Winter) to fill in to confirm how many (and which) registered voters live at an address (we can also register any time during the year, but most people do it when they get the reminder). Even though the voting age is 18, we have to register anyone in the house who is 16 or over. Which means that this time next year we'll be registering DS on the electoral register (and how old does that make me feel???), even though he won't get to vote for a while.
There has been some discussion here recently about changing the law to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote - at first thought it seems like a bad idea, but the fact is that any 16 or 17 year old still in full-time education (which most are these days) is attending compulsory citizenship classes, which almost certainly means that they would be better-informed about the issues than very many older voters.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-11-04 07:26 pm (UTC)Here in the UK every household gets a registration form once a year (usually late Fall/early Winter) to fill in to confirm how many (and which) registered voters live at an address (we can also register any time during the year, but most people do it when they get the reminder). Even though the voting age is 18, we have to register anyone in the house who is 16 or over. Which means that this time next year we'll be registering DS on the electoral register (and how old does that make me feel???), even though he won't get to vote for a while.
There has been some discussion here recently about changing the law to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote - at first thought it seems like a bad idea, but the fact is that any 16 or 17 year old still in full-time education (which most are these days) is attending compulsory citizenship classes, which almost certainly means that they would be better-informed about the issues than very many older voters.