Holyrood committee backs younger voting age bill
A Holyrood committee has given its unanimous support to the bill that would allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.
In its stage 1 report on the Scottish Election (Reduction of Voting Age) Bill, the Devolution (Further Powers) Committee supports the general principles of the measure, which would give 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote in all future elections to the Scottish Parliament and local authority elections.
The MSPs noted the success of lowering the voting age for last year's independence referendum, but also note the existence of data protection and other issues where information regarding those as young as 14 will require to be compiled for the electoral roll. There will be no separate register of younger voters as there was for the referendum.
As for the potential human rights issue if young offenders otherwise of voting age are excluded from the roll, the committee records the response of Deputy First Minister John Swinney that the issue of prisoner voting is determined and constrained by the Representation of the People Act 1983, and because that is reserved legislation, the Scottish Parliament has no ability to vary it.
Committee convener Bruce Crawford MSP said: “All parties represented on the Committee and the Parliament agree that 16 and 17 year olds should be able to vote in future elections. The experience of last year’s referendum – and the enthusiasm and engagement it generated – demonstrated that young people not only want a voice, they want a vote."
He added: “While the committee believes that more needs to be done to ensure that schools and colleges are best supported to help discussion of election issues, we unanimously support the general principles of this bill.”