{"id":67162,"date":"2026-02-20T09:44:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/?p=67162"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:44:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:44:59","slug":"voting-age-to-be-extended-sheffield-councillor-hopes-young-people-will-prove-me-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/voting-age-to-be-extended-sheffield-councillor-hopes-young-people-will-prove-me-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting age to be extended: Sheffield councillor hopes young people will \u2018prove me right\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Sheffield councillor has shared her views on the government\u2019s new bill to extend the voting age to 16 and 17-year-olds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coun Elle Dodd, Chair of Governance, said: \u201cIt will allow millions of young people across the country to have their own voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gov.uk\">The Representation of the People Bill 2026<\/a> is currently being debated in Parliament and, if successful, would be the biggest change to the electorate since 1969, which brought England in line with Scotland and Wales.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the bill passes, Coun Dodd and her team will expand the work they already do with schools across Sheffield to promote democracy and governance, encouraging lifelong participation in voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coun Dodd said: \u201cI hope they all get out and vote and feel motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am not worried that young people don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bill aims to engage young people in democracy, \u201cempowering them to participate in society\u201d as they have the lowest voting turnout across age groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government will bring in better voter ID requirements where voters would only require a bank card to prove their identity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are also bringing in a trial that will allow local authorities to use automatic voter registration where Dodd believes this will be helpful for students as they move around and have to re-register.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-crowdsignal wp-block-embed-crowdsignal\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<script>var pd_tags = new Array;pd_tags[\"16657841-src\"]=\"poll-oembed-simple\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.polldaddy.com\/p\/16657841.js\"><\/script><noscript><iframe title=\"Do you agree with lowering the voting age to 16?\" src=\"https:\/\/poll.fm\/16657841\/embed\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"cs-iframe-embed\"><\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposed bill has received mixed reactions across social media, with one Reddit user saying that \u201c16 year olds don\u2019t know anything about the world. This is not a good thing for the long term stability of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, many have come out in support of the bill with another Reddit user saying that 16-year-olds \u201chave the same variance in maturity and responsibility as adults\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coun Dodd has been a long standing advocate for lowering the voting age since she was 16 and says that schools already do a lot of good teaching on the electoral system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said: \u201cI think if we give them the chance to vote they\u2019ll take that opportunity and I hope they\u2019ll prove me right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To become law, the bill must be approved by both MPs and peers which is a process that could take months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government has proposed a new bill to be discussed in parliament to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote. Councillor Elle Dodd fully supports the bill and hopes all young people will get out and vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":67155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,82],"tags":[38,141,1964],"class_list":["post-67162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-story","tag-sheffield","tag-sheffield-city-council","tag-voting-age"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Voting age to be extended: Sheffield councillor hopes young people will \u2018prove me right\u2019 - ShefNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/voting-age-to-be-extended-sheffield-councillor-hopes-young-people-will-prove-me-right\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voting age to be extended: Sheffield councillor hopes young people will \u2018prove me right\u2019 - ShefNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government has proposed a new bill to be discussed in parliament to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote. 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