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Court rejects teens' appeal to lower voting age

Two Edmonton teenagers have lost another battle to lower the legal voting age.

Christine Jairamsingh, 19, and Eryn Fitzgerald, 18, started their campaign while they were still in high school. At the time, they fought for the right for young people to cast ballots in a civic election, but lost.

On Thursday, three judges with the Alberta Court of Appeal put another damper on their fight when they upheld an earlier judgment that a youth's right to vote is not guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In 2002, Justice Erik Lefsrud of the Court of Queen's Bench agreed in principle that voting-age limits violate democratic and equality rights under the charter. But Lefsrud said the infringements are justified because they maintain the integrity of the electoral system.

Jairamsingh and Fitzgerald said they are doing this because there are close to one million 16- and 17-year-old Canadians who are being denied a fundamental democratic right.

The two women, who start university next September, are trying to decide whether they want to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Only 22.4 per cent of people between 18 and 20 voted in the 2000 federal election according to an Elections Canada study.

This year Elections Canada started a program that invites high school students to track the federal election by casting proxy votes in their schools.

Posted by thinkum at May 15, 2004 11:11 AM