Young voters should be required to vote first time round

Published: 29 August 2013

A report co-authored by Sarah Birch, Professor of Politics, suggests that compulsory first-time voting could tackle political inequality and empower young voters.

Voting should be compulsory for your first election, according to a new report co-authored by the School of Social & Political Science's Professor Sarah Birch, which will be published by the think tank IPPR in September. Labour recently announced that they will drop the voting age to 16 if elected in 2015, and it has been reported that Shadow Lord Chancellor Sadiq Khan is considering making first time voting compulsory.

Under IPPR’s plan, young voters would be required to go to the polling station to vote and would face a small fine if they didn’t. But IPPR also proposes that they would be given a ‘none of the above’ option, so they would not be forced to vote for a party.

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First published: 29 August 2013

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Young voters should be required to vote first time round

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