Trial elections for 16 and 17-year-olds

Young people was given the opportunity to vote in trial elections parallel to the Danish local elections.

The trial elections were set up in corporation between DUF - the Danish Youth Council and the organization Local Government Denmark. In total 31 of the 98 Danish Municipalities participated and gave about 50.629 young people of 16 and 17 years the opportunity to vote. The elections turned attention to the question of lowering the voting age, and the role of youth in democracy. Voting age was put on the agenda of the local governments and made politicians debate and consider their position.

The trial elections were followed up by local campaigns. Both the member organizations in DUF and the local government and schools worked together on preparing young people to vote. In many places they used digital voting to collect the results and experimented with other alternatives to the polling box, a.o. voting on the internet or with your mobile.

Below you can see pictures from a choice of the many trial elections.