This May is the first time that 16 and 17 year olds can vote in the local elections and young people from 14 year olds can now register to vote too. As a part of our Voting Champions project, we want to see more young people voting so we asked Ania, one of our Community Development Workers, to chat with her 14 year old daughter Lauren about voting.

Ania: The Scottish council elections are coming up, how do you feel about being able to vote in a couple of years?

Lauren: I don’t really know because it’s still in a few years and I don’t even know what I would be voting about and how it would affect life.

Ania: Do you talk to your friends about this at all?

Lauren: Not really about voting but big news stories like Donald Trump.

Ania: So would you have voted for Donald Trump?

Lauren: No.

Ania: And do you know how to vote, do you know how it works?

Lauren: I’m pretty sure you go to a polling station and you cast your vote there but that’s about it.

Ania: Do you think it’s important for people to vote?

Lauren: Yeah, I think it is because then you can get your point across.

Ania: So do you think you’ll be voting once you’re old enough?

Lauren: Yes, I do.

Are you registered to vote? If not, there’s no need to worry. You can still register to vote up until the 17th of April. Registering only takes a few minutes and you can do the whole process online here.