Photo still of me shortly after my lecture to attending youth in the parlor of the Centre Congregational Church on Nov. 16, 2024. Photo courtesy of Brattleboro Community TV.
We just wrapped up the Youth Vote Awareness Day here in Brattleboro moments ago, getting coverage from one of the local stations, speaking to one of the youth groups in the town about the national efforts to lower the voting age & empowering more youth during this post election season.
From early morning to midafternoon, I spoke with youth about not only one of their fortunate proximity to one of the fewest cities across the United States that had a municipal voting age of 16, but also how they can help with the national efforts with House Joint Resolution 16(HJR16), the bill by Congressman Grace Meng to lower the federal voting age to 16.
Most of the time was engaged in serious dialogue with the youth who attended, even some who weren’t old enough to vote, but still endorsed the idea. We also had ice cream donated by Ben & Jerry’s to feed the youth while our local organization, Brattleboro Common Sense, brought finger snacks as well as pizza for lunch.
Not only did the event bring more awareness of the national bill to lower the voting age, but it also helped start local discussion about some of the ways young people felt being empowered as one of the few cities to have a lower voting age for both municipal elections and for school board elections.
As of this writing, a few days after the Youth Vote Awareness Day, the city of Albany, CA had lowered their municipal voting age to 16. Other efforts across the country continue to grow as other movements continue to increase in awareness of HJR16. More efforts are being planned to coordinate with other efforts on the ground to try to not only support regional effort to lower the voting age, but also support a more national effort.
Here is a video from the event that readers can watch to see more about the event. If you would like to coordinate with local efforts to lower the voting age to 16 as well as help the national effort as well, our Twitter contacts are below.
Twitter/X @16ToVoteProject
#16ToVoteAdvocacyProject 