Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarygeologist
Is there any indication or evidence that suggests voting younger brings about higher engagement and builds stronger democracies? I didn't know this before but a minimum voting age of 18 didn't become the norm until the 1970's.
Austria introduced voting at 16 in 2007 and in their first election in 2008 they saw considerable interest and turnout in 16/17 year old voters but in subsequent elections those numbers dropped and it doesn't look like that initial younger voting period has carried over into higher turnout for the 18-30 group as those kids aged.
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I think people are leaning on 2 well known effects.
Default opt in programs, having higher participation rates.
Voting in the previous election being the greatest predictor of voting the current.
So if you went to 14, then made election day a school field trip to the area voting stations (which often just means a walk to the gym), then your participation rate in the 14-18 demo should be huge, and on the second cycles and huge percentage of 18-22s would have voted in the previous election.