The commission has spent the last 12 months looking into the issue and its findings are mixed. An ICM poll of the general public found that 78 per cent of people did not support lowering the voting age. It spoke to 1,033 over-18s and 234 young people aged 15 to 19.
At events with young people, views were split over whether the voting age should be lowered. However, the majority of the 7,500 responses it received to a consultation were in favour of lowering the voting age to 16.
But Earnshaw says most of these replies to the consultation came from campaigns and organisations, and only 1,000 were from individuals. Overall, she says, people want the voting age to remain at 18.
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