Tomorrow is September 17th, a day that is traditionally observed as Citizenship Day in the United States. But what is one of the hallmark activities of citizenship? One could say one of the main responsibilities of that would be voting.
During the summer, I and several organizations worked together to bring more awareness of the national bill, House Joint Resolution 16(HJ Res 16), a bill introduced by Rep. Grace Meng of New York. For those not aware of the bill, this piece of legislation seeks to lower the federal voting age for elections to 16.
While lowering the voting age is not a new issue for many supporters, some recent gains are. Globally, it has almost been a year since Germany has lowered its national voting age to 16, while New Zealand is currently achieving unprecedented accomplishments for the work activists are doing there. Meanwhile, nationally, we are up to seven local municipalities with a voting age of 16- a sixth city in Maryland has joined this small, coveted list of cities while a second state has now joined Maryland- Vermont’s very own Brattleboro, another city where lowering the voting age efforts have been really active the last few years.
The two recent gains above show that not only are 16-year olds ready to vote, so is the nation to allow them to. We just don’t have enough awareness of the issue because we’re not working together enough on the issue. That’s why we have HJ Res 16, and now it is up to us as supporters of this idea to continue the work that I have done during the summer- to band together all major individuals, organizations and other supporters who have expressed their own interest in enfranchising the next generation of voters & leaders. However, I cannot do this alone. I want your help and I want to help you.
By now, most of those reading probably have probably been contacted by me through email. If not yet, then shortly. There’s plenty of momentum to get young people enfranchised & involved in politics. If we don’t capitalize on this now, then young people will continue to not have their voices heard, make a difference in their local communities or in the country they call home.
In the past two weeks alone, we’ve had many news events relevant to lowering the voting age- UNC Chapel Hill had their second lockdown when school has hardly started; the U.S. government is once again in threat of shutting down, forcing young people to help their families weather the economic impacts much like they had during COVID; young people won’t be given credit for the contributions they made during the height of the pandemic, one that we’re still currently fighting & may possibly have to continue fighting as the colder months start to arrive again. The list goes on & on…
HJ Res 16 is good for this congressional term- from January 2023- January 2025. It is almost 2024. Should young people who have the most to lost and the much to gain be delayed the opportunity to make a difference in their circles, community & country? I don’t think so. We can all change that. That change begins once HJ Res 23 is passed, made into law & our young citizens & future leaders can vote.
Jester Jersey
#16ToVoteAdvocacyProject 