Although there are strong views and arguments for and against reducing the voting age to 16, STV Action will not take sides on the issue for the following reasons:

• All STV Action asks of its supporters is that they support the Single Transferable Vote (STV). Supporters are free to hold their own individual views on all other issues and we do not wish to divide them from each other or us so we do not ask them to support or oppose any other political campaigns, such as the minimum voting age, and STV Action itself does not campaign on any of them.
• The votes of 66 year-olds in most constituencies are worthless because they are safe seats under the present voting system so there is little point even debating giving equally worthless votes to 16 year-olds. Campaigning to reduce the voting age implies (wrongly) that voting under the present voting system is effective. The voting age could be reviewed after the voting system itself has been reformed.

Editor