Side by Side: How Old Must You Be to Vote?

On 14 October Estonia’s parliament voted 59 to 28 to lower the voting age for European Parliament elections to 16, from 2029, ERR reports. So, at the door of the polling station: how old must a citizen be to vote for a national parliament?

Austria

Whoever is 16 on polling day may vote for the Nationalrat; in 2007 Austria became the first country in Europe to lower the age to 16, according to Vienna.at. Researchers writing in Democratic Audit found that 16- and 17-year-olds turned out at higher rates than 18- to 20-year-olds, by 2.3 to 10.0 percent. Nineteen years on, the youngest voters are outvoting their elder siblings.

Brazil

Voting is optional at 16 and 17 and compulsory for literate citizens from 18 to 70, according to the Superior Electoral Court; to vote in this year’s first round, a teenager had to be 16 by 4 October. The only ballot here that begins as an invitation and becomes a summons.

United Kingdom

The age for Westminster is 18, but 16 for the Scottish Parliament since 2016 and the Senedd since 2021, according to Full Fact. The Representation of the People Bill, introduced on 12 February, would lower it to 16 and enfranchise about 1.7 million young people, says the Commons Library; it was carried over when Parliament was prorogued in April. A teenager in Cardiff may choose a Senedd, and wait for a Westminster.

United States

The Twenty-Sixth Amendment, ratified in 1971, protects the vote of citizens “eighteen years of age or older”; the traditional age had been 21. The number has not moved in fifty-five years, which in Washington passes for consensus.

Japan

Japan lowered the age from 20 to 18, and the 2016 House of Councillors election was the first national poll for 18- and 19-year-olds, East Asia Forum reports. In a sample of 188 districts, turnout was 51.17 percent at 18 and 39.66 percent at 19. The keenest voters were the newest; the enthusiasm then declined by birthday.

South Korea

The National Assembly lowered the age from 19 to 18 in 2019, and some 540,000 18-year-olds could vote in the April 2020 general election, about 1.2 percent of the electorate, according to The Korea Times. Until then Korea was the only OECD member that did not let 18-year-olds vote. Seoul arrived last, a year older than everyone else.

Australia

Enrolment and voting are compulsory from 18, and the Australian Electoral Commission lets 16- and 17-year-olds enrol early “so when you turn 18 you’ll be able to vote.” The waiting room opens two years before the door.

Verdict

Vienna went first and Brasília goes as far, with a summons attached at 18. Washington, Tokyo, Seoul and Canberra hold the line at 18, Seoul having reached it last, while London moves toward 16 at the speed of a bill carried from one session to the next. Estonia’s newest voters will choose Brussels before they may choose the Riigikogu. From 2029 a sixteen-year-old in Tallinn, like one in Edinburgh today, may vote for a parliament, just not the one that decides the age.