KEY POINTS:
A proposal by Green MP Sue Bradford to lower the voting age to 16 has received short shrift from respondents to a Herald-DigiPoll.
An overwhelming 91.3 per cent of people polled said the voting age should not be lowered from 18 to 16.
Just 6.8 per cent agreed with the franchise being extended to 16-year-olds.
The result did not surprise Ms Bradford, who said she had seen similar survey results elsewhere.
"I've always seen it as a long-term campaign. It is something amazingly radical for people but I don't think it's radical at all.
"I've discovered that when I get a chance to explain to people why I think it is a good idea, people are already changing their minds. That indicates to me that it is possible, but that it will be quite a long campaign."
Ms Bradford will still enter her private member's bill to the ballot. The bill, if drawn from the ballot and then passed by Parliament, would not only lower the voting age but make civics education compulsory.
Other political parties have expressed doubt about lowering the voting age.
That and apparent antipathy towards the idea from the public would seem to doom the proposal, but Ms Bradford is experienced in winning seemingly forlorn causes - most notably her child discipline bill passed by Parliament earlier this year.
"The reason why I have introduced the bill is because you have got to start somewhere," Ms Bradford said.
