16 Voting Age Proposed in Austria

Austria may soon be the first European nation to lower its national
voting age to 16. The proposal to lower the age comes from Austria’s
“grand coalition” of Social Democrats and the conservative People’s
Party following elections on Oct. 1. Currently 16 year olds are able
to vote for local elections in many major cities, including Vienna,
but the new change would apply for all elections nationally. Lowering
the voting age has been suggested as a way to counterbalance the views
of an increasingly aging population.