Fair.Vote campaign launches

Fair.Vote logo CYMK.jpg Today (09 March 2018), sees the official launch of the Fair.Vote - the campaign to lower the legal voting age to 16. In partnership with the National Union of Students, Association of Colleges is looking to bring together individuals, organisations from across the UK, and politicians of all parties, who believe that democracy should be open and fair. Our goal is simple: to work with partners and politicians to lower the legal voting age to 16. David Hughes, Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges says: “Education is empowering. It helps people become citizens and understand how our participative democracy operates, and therefore helping young people to really engage in politics is really, really important. How do you make young people feel like they’ve got a stake in our society, like their voice matters? What you do is, you say: ‘We think you should have a vote.'" The campaign is focused on gaining support for the second reading of Peter Kyle MP's Private Members Bill, which would see the voting age equalised across the UK. The Bill is supported by Nicky Morgan MP and Norman Lamb MP, with support from every corner of parliament. With amplified voices across civic society, and targetted action, we believe that we may be on the verge of an historic moment for our country - delivered by colleges and the young people that we serve. To get involved and to download our toolkit, please visit the FairVote campaign page on our website. Follow the conversation online @fairvote16 using the hashtags #fairvote16 and #votesat16.