A hand-drawn documentation of the “Women Fight for the Vote at Seneca Falls” convention in 1848. Although this saw the birth of the eventual movement to give women the right to vote, it was not until 1920, more than 70 years later, before all women in the country could vote. The vote 16 efforts could see national enfranchisement of 16 year-olds in a shorter period of time, depending on how supporters collaborate. (Source courtesy of the United States Library of Congress)

More movement on the west coast front:

Since earlier this year, I have been documenting mostly efforts going on on the American west coast, particularly in California, with references to other movements around the country. Obviously movements both locally & nationally are just as important too, given the importance of this particular movement. These are very interesting times, and connecting with partners locally, nationally & even internationally is important.

Last month, I meant to write a post that was more focused around Women’s History Month to highlight some of the efforts around the country that have been inspired by Women activists around lowering the voting age, but given the wonderful webinar yesterday evening hosted by the League of Women Voters of California, I think looking at the various efforts across the state in relation to the growing efforts around lowering the voting age to 16, this month’s post would continue the west coast focus.

At the webinar, we heard from the 5C(five colleges) League of Women Voters in the Claremont, CA region(near Los Angeles), The LWV Youth Council of San Francisco & the LWV California Youth Circle. Eventually, the slides will be up for most of the presentation, but these are just a general recap based on my notes. We’ll start with the 5C colleges.

Southern California has been really active in the advocacy efforts. Claremont High School had various representatives talk about voter registration drives, but also how their intersectional efforts with the Five Colleges in the Pomona region, has resulted in increased collaborative efforts to register new voters, particularly new college students who have to navigate the challenges of registering in near areas after leaving home to study. The groups in this area are also collaborating on efforts to connect with efforts in the Los Angeles area where Charter reform is currently occurring. In fact, some of those in attendance who’ve been actively involved in supporting the efforts in L.A. also spoke at the webinar, making that Vote16/League of Women Voters youth connection.

Next, the LWV Youth Council in San Francisco spoke out about how the rich history of the Bay Area continues to influence the work there. When you have a former Speaker of the House of the United States, a Vice-President who has repeatedly endorsed lowering the voting age to 16 in the last few years along with three nearby cities of Berkeley, Oakland & Albany that have lowered the voting age to 16 in the last decade(for school board in Berkeley & Oakland; citywide for Albany in 2024), it’s a tough act to follow. However the Youth Council was ready to rise to the occasion. They mirrored much of what was said by the 5C groups, and using the knowledge base generated by nearby cities that have already lowered the voting age to 16 in the last ten years, talked about strategies on how growing the movement using the tools, resources & skill sets that each of the youths possessed is helpful to empowering more young people at this time.

Finally, there was the more statewide Youth Circle coalition, who represented various parts of the state, not just one regional location. Some of the representatives from the earlier groups also had connections with the latter, encompassing group, so the statewide Youth Circle could echo much of what the second group mentioned about looking at cities where there has already been much success around lowering the voting age, but could also advise the different groups on questions they may have based on their vast geographic knowledge, which proved really useful for some members across various group because for some, this was only their first year as a LWV-affiliated group. If one group didn’t know an answer, one group either did or knew someone who would know.

The night concluded with additional connections among the different groups who were not already connected to each other, with interest in following up at a later time to do updates, continue supporting growing efforts as well as to look at places where newer efforts can spread. The webinar was helpful for all groups involved.

As the efforts continue to spread across the country, especially here in California, groups like the LWV, Vote16, PowerCA, and other regional, state, national and even international allies will be crucial to further propel democratic ideals in the 21st century. It is important now more than ever that young voices are heard, advocate and collaborate to empower not just young people, but also underrepresented communities and young women especially, as much as possible.

Jester Jersey

Above is a towering photo of Los Angeles City Hall. It is the focal point for SoCal’s efforts to push for lowering the voting age. However, L.A. isn’t the only SoCal city to see some “lower-the-voting-age” action, as you’ll read shortly.

If you tuned in to last month’s post, you might have noticed that it was more focused on northern California, so this month, we’ll focus on more southern Golden State action.

If you’ve also been following the action around Los Angeles Charter reform, you might also be aware of the efforts to lower the voting age to 16. Last month, the Commission behind the reforms decided to do just that by voting to recommend adding it to the city charter for City Council to take up in the next few weeks, with the possibility of it becoming a ballot measure to be voted on by L.A.’s residents at this year’s November election.

Although L.A.’s progress at the time of this writing isn’t yet set in stone(there’s a meeting tomorrow on St. Patrick’s of all days to draft charter language), there’s a good chance that it will likely end up on the Los Angeles ballot later this year, alongside the mayoral race happening this year.

While there’s a quite a bit of action going on in Tinsletown, there’s actually more going on a bit to the west in Culver City.

Culver City has also pushed to get lowering the voting age on their local ballot after a previous attempt to get the motion passed in 2022. The irony of that was that not only was only a few votes short of passage, but it only failed by 16 votes. This time, the Culver City Vote16 group is ready for another try later this year.

Something worth noting is that at one of the City Council meetings a few weeks ago, one of the City Councilmembers alluded to the efforts going next door through L.A.’s charter reform by speaking about the importance of the work the local team is doing.

The work continues to spread around lowering the voting age to 16. More updates next month.

Jester Jersey

Admin of the 16ToVoteProject & Vote16CAL accounts

The Winter Olympics will be getting started in a few weeks in Italy, but the efforts to lower the voting age to 16 is just heating up.

This past week, I had the pleasure of delivering public comment’s to Los Angeles’ Charter Reform Commission, who is looking at rewriting the city’s charter laws, including whether to incorporate language into the city’s charter on lowering the voting age to 16. This is big news, as the charter hasn’t been officially revised since 1999.

While the Charter Reform Commission is dissolving, it is now being replaced by an ad hoc committee, which will continue the process. Fortunately, sentiments to retain language & dialog to lower the voting age to 16 have survived & continue to be in the conversation.

You can watch my & other supporters’ public comments on the video below, which are around the first half hour mark.

Because of lowering the voting age group’s strong showing, it is believed that this has helped continue the dialog as the talks continue & transition to the ad hoc committee. It is from there that the work continues.

Let’s keep up the pressure!

A photo of Speaker Nancy Pelosi standing up to Donald Trump in 2019. We need more Nancy Pelosi to do this. Not just lowering the voting age to 16, but other things too. (Photo courtesy of the Guardian)

On January 6th, former Speaker of the House & congressional representative of District 11, Nancy Pelosi, announced her plans to retire from public service as a Congresswoman from the California’s Bay Area region.

The decision comes after nearly 40 years of public service, which saw her rise to the Speakership twice during her service in office in the early 2000s & more recently in 2019. This marks the end of a historic era by the former & first & only female Speaker of the House.

However, Pelosi’s legacy doesn’t have to end there. We of the national Vote16 movement, as well as the state & regional efforts like Vote16CA have the obligation to continue one of her strongest endorsements while in office- that of lowering the voting age to 16.

Although Pelosi may no longer be in office after the end of her term in January 2027, it is up to us to continue that endorsement of lowering the voting age to 16, which has slowly gained traction since her first endorsement of the concept in 2015.

When I set out do my nationwide walk in 2015, I wasn’t counting on getting an endorsement from Nancy Pelosi. I didn’t even know about the endorsement to lower the voting age to 16 until months after I had reached California, when I was

I brought my sign back to Indianapolis 10 years later!

Here’s the sign without me on the photo!

The photo above is from a news station interview I did in August, 2015 in Grand Junction, in western Colorado, where I was a little more than two-thirds of the way back home after starting my walk 2 1/2 months before that on a warm day in May in the heart of New York City. I was holding up a sign that I carried on my back(held with lightweight pvc piping on my backpack), but had rolled up due to rain for a few days.

It would not be until a little more than a month after before I reached my goal of San Francisco on September 5th, 2015. (Photo courtesy of KKCO NBC 11 News)

If someone told me shortly after completing my nationwide walk from New York City to San Francisco near noon of September 5th in 2015 that we would have a Vote16California(or henceforth Vote16CA) on the 10th anniversary of my completed walk, I would think they were the crazy one. If I did so, I would realize that this month, they wouldn’t be so crazy after all because after last month’s Vote16 Convening in L.A., and a meeting of a contingent of interested parties since then, they would be right. As of September 16th, 2025, we now have a coalition of advocates across the state in support of lowering the voting age to 16 working towards the formation of a Vote16CA.

Obviously, because of the novelty of our collaborative effort, I cannot say much yet, other than that we’re on the way to empowering more young people, continuing the vision around the L.A. Convening’s dialogue, and possibly, another Convening later this year.

What I can share as we continue to refine our group is that, unlike previous efforts, we are planning more, researching more & coordinating more, more so than previous efforts. Also, unlike previous, localized efforts, we’re more connected. Don’t get the wording wrong- we’re still working to lower the voting age to 16 in individual cities, but at the same time, there’s a larger consciousness of collaborative will, knowing that each separate city is connecting with a large framework of the movement, by state & nationallly, but also, in some cases, regionally. I am excited to be a part of this growing effort.

Ten years ago(or rather, more than that since I started my walk in May of 2015, 10 years& four months), I set out with several goals in mind, some of which I’ll list here. One of the main ones for lowering the voting age specifically was to bring attention to lowering the voting age to 16, after the success of Takoma Park & Hyattsville, Maryland, then overseas in Scotland, one year prior, in 2014, to a more national level. The second one was to make it back so that I could continue that work after my walk to promote the idea. That was difficult to do because while there were occasionally individuals who supported the idea, they were often few & far between. A Vote16CA helps fulfill that role now because I’m not the only one saying it- there’s half a dozen efforts within the Golden State collaborating together.

For years, I have tried to get national groups to concentrate on working in California, while also supporting efforts outside the state. Organizations have changed leaders. People have lost interest or given up. The political environment changes. Not me. Not after walking from the east coast to the west coast after braving almost every imaginable unfavorable inclement of weather. Also not after getting recognized by politicians for my work, both back then & even within the last year. Now, we have a state effort after three other states before it have succeeded in getting a form of a lowered voting age, either for school board elections or general elections.

Perhaps ten years is a long time to see such change, given that other countries around the world already had this for years before we even had it with Takoma Park. Then again, not too long after that, Berkeley gained the right for school board elections, only to wait nearly a decade to actually put it into practice. Oakland had a far long less wait than Berkeley. Hopefully this time around, now that we’re slowly overcoming obstacles that had mired collaboration around youth enfranchisement, we can make serious headway around lowering the voting age to 16. Obstacles in the way to actually implementing these are being addressed, with most either close to resolution or resolved already.

On a more national front, after Albany becoming the 13th city to lower the voting age in 2024, we’ve already had two other American cities that have done the same thing this year- College Park & Berwyn Heights, both in Maryland. This means we have momentum going for us as cities continue to get added. With more cities declaring success in this endeavor, this will make it harder for cities without “vote 16” policies to remain so. Sooner or later, movements within those cities will spring up as well, much like the cities that have already succeeded at lowering the voting age being influenced by other efforts before them.

Adding new cities is great, but surely other cities outside of Maryland would be great too. I don’t say this as a negative, but rather a way to move towards the next goal post, much like I did trying to get from one city to the next when I walked from coast to coast. The goal to enfranchise shouldn’t stop when one has achieved success in their locality- it should continue when those who’ve succeeded continue the work by helping those who have yet to succeed, much like in the last decade since my walk, I’ve emailed as many supporters of the efforts, connected with several organizations, gone to as many meetings on Zoom, spoken at several conferences & continue the work long after the last mile of my cross-country trek.

Vote16CA is like this- connecting the efforts that have succeeded, to those that have yet to succeed, to also those who have yet to start. It’s not just a sprint- it’s not just a marathon as some have told me- it’s not even just a relay where we pass the baton amongst the team- it’s a combination of all of the above. We really have momentum for us going at this time. We need to take advantage of it.

Here’s to hoping that we don’t have to wait another 10 years to enfranchise the next city- the 16th city to lower the voting age to 16, or the next 14 cities after that, to reach the same level we’re at today.

-Jester Jersey