Last year, I along with a team of fellow youth rights advocates from various organizations convened a panel for the second year in a row at the prestigious Frontiers of Democracy Conference held at Tuft’s University each year.
The conference theme was combatting violence in our modern era. Our panel talked about the need for younger people to have an outlet to voice their opinions, but also went one step further to state that people who don’t already have a vote should not just have a vote only, but also play a role in changing their immediate environment.
The conference panel was so popular that even Rep. Grace Meng herself, the member of the House of Representatives and current author of a national bill to lower the federal voting age, personally liked our team’s announcement of our panel.
This year, we’re working with even more youth advocates from organizations we haven’t worked with before. Shortly after our panel last summer, the city of Albany in California became the thirteenth city in the U.S. with a form of voting at 16. With the addition of Albany, there are now three states with Earlier this year, College Park in Maryland became the fourteenth city to do so. More efforts are continually arising. Efforts like our recent conference panels are raising awareness among people as well as inspiring fellow advocates in the work they’re doing. That is why we continue to do what we’re doing- to raise more awareness & to empower a new generation of leaders.
At this year’s conference, the third that’s been convened discussing the topic of lowering the voting age, we want to continue pushing for youth enfranchisement. With Albany now adding another city name to the list, it will only be a matter of time until more cities, along with states possibly, to be added to that list.
#16ToVoteAdvocacyProject 