One year ago this week, European Parliamentary Member Terry Reintke announced that Germany had lowered its national voting age to 16. Around that same time, New Zealand began working to lower its national voting age to 16 after it was ruled by their supreme court that the current voting laws discriminated against young people.
Earlier this year in the United States, Rep. Grace Meng of New York re-introduced the national bill to lower the voting age to 16, House Joint Resolution 16, after its predecessor bill was not voted on on the House floor in the previous congressional session.
This summer, Brattleboro’s move to lower it’s municipal voting age to 16 doubled the number of states with cities with a voting age of 16. Maryland was previously the only state in the country that had a local voting age of 16. Now Vermont has been added to that list.
In July, I personally led a contingent of people across numerous organizations to discuss the merits of lowering the voting age to 16 at the Frontiers of Democracy Conference, which was held in Boston, Massachusetts. Among the members in the panel were contributors from NYRA(National Youth Rights Association), Children’s Voting Colloquium, the Vote16Research group and Generation Vote. I had also been in contact with chapters of March For Our Lives, Vote16USA and other supportive groups and individuals on discussing not only what actions we should take working together during the panel, but also steps we should take afterwards- I believe that time is now, and I believe it is time to band together to lower the United States’ federal voting age to 16.
So drawing upon the network connections, collaborators and contributors from the conference in Boston, I am reaching out today to all organizations, people and their networks who are addressing any issue that are affecting youth and their communities, to work together on lowering the national voting age to 16. If you’re reading this post today, it is because I have personally reached out to you or you were forwarded my email by someone I reached out to. I want to help your network deal with whatever issue you’re trying to address, but in order to do that, I need you to help me help you by throwing support to lower the voting age to 16.
There are several reasons I am making that outreach now and calling for your help. I have listed several of the most important reasons below, though it is by no means an exhaustive list- just the issues that likely impact the most people. However, the main idea is that by enfranchising young people, we can find solutions that are not just relevant to young people today, but also life-changing for them and useful to the communities they live in.
First, let’s start legislatively. As I mentioned above, we have House Joint Resolution 16. For people that say there’s little chance of passing it, look at cities in Maryland, and now Brattleboro, Vermont. More than a decade ago, there were no cities that had a lower voting age of 16. Then came along Takoma Park, Maryland in 2013. Then Hyattsville, then more cities. We didn’t have a city or state, but Takoma Park became that beacon of hope. Then several other cities joined that list, eventually now extending that vote to a second state. Would you have believed that we would have two states with a lower voting age of 16 in 2013? Even I would have found that hard to believe. But it is a fact today. We can do the same for the United States and enfranchise all 16-year old taxpaying voters if we can get HJR 16 voted on. Maryland, and now Vermont, have demonstrated nothing is impossible.
Politically, the past few months have shown that current leadership is not working because leaders tend to be older and do not seem representative of the constituents in their districts. Last month, our Congress went without a House Speaker for three full weeks! This caused a delay in hearing bills such as House Joint Resolution 23, or HJR 23, the predecessor to the current HJR 16 bill. In the previous presidential administration, we had three government shutdowns, one of which was the longest in U.S. history. Regardless of which party you lean to, this does not exude confidence in American government or leadership from those outside the nation’s borders. As of this week, we were once again almost to a point of government shutting down. This could be avoided if we had leaders who cared more about their ability to serve the people and do their job rather than being grandfathered into their job from constituents they can count on rather than dealing with a younger base constituency than we have at present.
Environmentally, 2023 was the hottest year on record. Not only have we seen the hottest summer temperatures of any year, but also had an above-normal year for storms and hurricanes. This summer was so above normal that we even had a tropical storm, Hilary, form on the Pacific Ocean side of the continental United States, something that rarely ever happens. These events are the result of climate being affected by human intervention, causing disruptive patterns in weather that are dangerous to health and safety. If we had more leaders in government like those who protest against groups or organizations that harm environments and regular climate, then we would be a long way off from these kinds of disasters. The fact that a lower voting age could potentially address these concerns yet has not happened at the federal level is concerning, as these issues aren’t just a 2023 problems, but a lifetime issue that young people will be dealing with for years to come.
Medically, we have just been through a horrible global pandemic that affected all corners of the globe. One might argue that lives are still being affected by COVID- those who not only lost people from the virus but also the people who became ill, survived today, but have to deal with the effects of long-COVID. Not only did we have a government that wasn’t completely organized around prevention, but when we eventually did have tools to fight the virus through a vaccine, it was available to those 16 years and older. Despite contributing to the safety of their community, paying taxes while also working at a time to keep local economies open due to the higher risk the virus posed for older workers and their local older counterparts, 16 year-olds who did not live in cities in Maryland that had lowered the voting age could not vote. Even after the pandemic has been reduced to its current levels compared to when vaccines first emerged and were available to young people, many youth still don’t have a vote.
On a personal safety level, not much has changed when it comes to gun violence compared to climate or the pandemic. For example, in the last few years after numerous events of gun violence around the country, we’re still plagued with gun violence today. I don’t need to quote any specific statistic or point to any specific event- because these are just so common that one doesn’t need to look outside our current year to see how violent our culture is. The last few years have shown things are getting more violent. Despite the best efforts to quell violence, it only seems to be rising, remaining high the last few years. Why is that? Perhaps because the people who are largely affected by that, many of whom are in schools, don’t have a vote? Imagine what the world would be like if we had a more sensible democratic constituency across the country who elected leaders who cared more about the actual safety of their constituents rather than the gains in their stock portfolio.
Militarily, we have two large conflicts going on in the world. One would have to be living under a huge rock to not be aware of either. There may possibly be more conflicts. Not only are our young people dealing with subpar health care at times, or the lack of availability thereof, but also exposed to the same risks of their personal safety from climate, violence and/or pandemics. Unlike their older counterparts, they also face the added risk of being drafted, one of the reasons we recently lowered the voting age in the first place. However, we didn’t lower it far enough, as those who have contributed to their local economy, who paid their federal taxes for the employment they hold to make a better life for themselves and their families, and have helped fight the global pandemic at the local level still don’t have a vote.
Economically, while we might not be in a recession, things are getting much harder to afford. Grocery items have gone up. Electronics have gone up. Housing prices have gone up, including rental units for apartments. Modes of transportation have gone up, whether one buys their own vehicle, commutes to their workplace or does a combination of both. More responsibilities are being placed on younger people trying to afford necessary tools of civilization without being given a platform to affect what is decided for them. They just have to live with it without a vote. When they do have a vote, the issues that previously affected them are either no longer relevant or are affecting a new set of people who again don’t have a platform to effect change.
There are many more reasons to lower the voting age, but if I listed them all out, kept discussing them with others or just debated them with those who disagreed or reinforced the beliefs of fellow supporters, the voting age would never be lowered. But actions in Germany have shown that you can lower the nation’s voting age to 16. Actions in New Zealand have shown that you can grow support for lowering the voting age at the national level. Cities in Maryland and Vermont have shown that it is possible in the United States, and I am telling you today reading, who either have worked with me on this issue, have heard about my efforts on this issue, have supported it yourself or are reading this because people in my network have decided to share this with you because they also support lowering the voting age to 16 that, yes, lowering the voting age to 16 in the United States is possible. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t have bothered to write all of this.
The main point of my blog is to raise awareness of lowering the voting age. This particular post is because we have the ability to lower the voting age. That is why I am calling on all youth rights, causes and awareness raisers to join with me to help lower the national voting age in the United States to 16. Thank you.
Jester Jersey
#16ToVoteAdvocacyProject 