Votes at 16
When we asked young people about the things they felt were important, they told us that they felt like no-one listened to them (apart from us of course!) We believe that young people deserve the right to be involved in decisions which affect them, especially if the government thinks they're old enough to pay taxes, get married or fight wars—that’s why we think the voting age should be lowered to 16 for all elections!
We hope you agree! If you do, you can get involved in our campaign in the following ways...
Sign the Petition
We're trying to get as many people as possible to sign up to our petition calling for Votes at 16, you can sign it online here.
It doesn't matter if you're a young person or a little older than young - we want all the support we can get - please sign it and pass on the link to others!
Gude Cause
On Saturday the 10th October 2009 hundreds of women, children and men take to the streets of Edinburgh to pay tribute to the women in Scotland who campaigned to obtain women’s right to vote and celebrate 100 years of women’s activism as they re-enact the original procession and we would like the SYP to have a big presence as the suffragettes fight a century ago is very similar to our push for 16 and 17 year olds to be given the right to vote today!
Get in touch with Kate Bouchier-Hayes on 0131 313 2488 or kate.b@scottishyouthparliament.org.uk to register for the march. For more info on the march and the cause head over to www.gudecause.org.uk
Write to your MP/MSP
We’re already demanding action from decision-makers, but you can help too! At the bottom of the page you’ll find a sample letter which you can personalise and send to your MP or MSP – if you send it to us by email, we’ll get it to them on your behalf…
Support the Campaign
Add your name to the list of supporters by emailing votesat16@sypmail.org.uk with your name, age and location. We'll add a list of key supporters soon!
Discuss!
Get on to our discussion boards to take part in the important chat about the issues and the practical elements of our campaign – log in/sign up here.
Sample Letter
Clicking on the link will prompt you to either Open or Save the document. If you are having any problems using the Open option please right click the document link and select "save target as" and open it from your desktop.