Austria Lowers Voting Age

On March 14th, the Austrian government decided to allow sixteen and seventeen year olds to vote in national elections. The effort to lower the voting age had the support of both the liberal and conservative parties in Austria. This is tremendously important, as the young people of Austria will prove to the world that lowering the voting age is a good idea. It will invigorate their democracy, and hopefully the United States will follow their example. In a letter to NYRA, Austrian ambassador Eva Nowotny wrote “We demand so much responsibility from the younger generation and load so many burdens on their shoulders that we feel it was the right thing to do.”