The Democrat-led movement to lower the legal voting age to 16 — or in some cases even younger — is gaining momentum as teenagers and other activists seek to score local victories while winning the support of some voices in the media.
The so-called “Vote 16” campaign recently notched a victory in Vermont, where the Democrat-controlled state legislature last month overrode Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of a measure allowing 16-year-olds to vote in municipal elections and hold the highest elected offices.
Specifically, 16- and 17-year-olds can now vote in the southern Vermont town of Brattleboro. Young voters will be able not only to vote in local elections but also to serve on the community’s selectboard if elected. They can also be representatives to the town’s annual town meeting, where local issues are decided.
Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, a Democrat from Brattleboro, said last week that getting more young people to vote will help keep them politically involved.
“I believe it is important to encourage young Vermonters to have an interest in issues affecting their schools, their communities, their state, and their country,” he wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “However, I do not support lowering the voting age in Brattleboro, nor lowering the age to run for Town office and sign contracts on behalf of taxpayers.”
In Missouri, meanwhile, a statewide group is lobbying to lower the voting age for local and school board elections to 16.
DJ Yearwood, the teenager leading the effort, recently launched the Vote16MO campaign, which advocates for Missouri lowering the voting age to 16. Vote16MO is working with Missouri lawmakers to introduce legislation in the next session. According to Yearwood, the bill has both a Republican and a Democratic sponsor, but he said he couldn’t reveal them yet. He hopes to see a measure to lower the voting age measure on the ballot as a constitutional amendment in next year’s elections.
“In the current system, 18-year-olds are launched into the political process at all levels, all party politics,” he said. “They have no chance to really digest what governance is [without] party politics.”
Yearwood argues that lowering the voting age would strengthen civic education and engagement and that not letting 16- and 17-year-olds vote amounts to “taxation without representation” since teens can also work and pay taxes.
However, Vote16MO’s campaign doesn’t have the support of Missouri’s top election official, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.
‘Vote Here’ sign is seen at a Michigan voting precinct the day before Michigan Democrats and Republicans choose their nominees to contest the 2022 midterm elections in Birmingham, Michigan, U.S. August 1, 2022. REUTERS/Emily Elconin (REUTERS/Emily Elconin)
“It is an extremely unwise push to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote,” Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation told Fox News Digital. “We don’t consider them to have the judgment and maturity to make important decisions, which is why they are not legally adults and can’t sign contracts, lease an apartment, buy a car, join the military, drink alcohol, or do the many other things only adults can legally do. Why would we think they have the maturity to make decisions in the political process if they can’t make any of these other decisions?”
Critics of lowering the voting age often cite the fact that a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed, not reaching full development until about the age of 25. According to one oft-cited study on this subject from 2006, “research in neuroscience suggests that the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, is still undergoing major reconstruction and development during the teenage years.” The study noted that the prefrontal cortex is what “enables us to weigh dilemmas, balance trade-offs, and, in short, make reasonable decisions in politics.”
Amid the push to lower the voting age, GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently proposed amending the Constitution to raise the voting age from 18 to 25. However, the other side of the momentum seems to be gaining momentum.
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A voter fills out her ballot in early voting at the Utah County Election offices in Provo, Utah on November 4, 2022. (GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty Images)
Just last month, the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Election Laws heard testimony from advocates and lawmakers speaking in favor of different bills to lower and even outright eliminate the voting age for some elections.
“Only with suffrage are social groups able to hold their governments truly accountable to their needs,” John Wall, a professor of childhood studies at Rutgers University, told the committee. “It is incorrect and discriminatory to apply to children the need for voting capacities when we don’t apply such capacities to adults. All adults have the right to vote, even if they have severe dementia, cognitive disabilities, illiteracy, or just plain stupidity.”
“If we can get 16- and 17-year-old’s the ability to vote in at least local elections, it will empower them to think about their civil responsibility,” said Delegate Sam Rasoul, who argued young people don’t have a sufficient say despite being affected by important decisions.
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Teenagers blow bubbles during the school prom on July 1, 2011 in Newcastle, United Kingdom. (Bethany Clarke/Getty Images)
In Culver City, Calif., meanwhile, a ballot initiative to allow residents as young as 16 to vote in city and school board elections fell short in last year’s midterm elections. However, proponents of the Vote 16 movement were encouraged.
Critics contend such arguments disguise the chief motive of those in power pushing this effort: gaining more votes.
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Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., attends a bill enrollment ceremony for H.R. 3525, a bill to create a commission to study making a national museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture, at the U.S. Capitol June 7, 2022 in Washington, D.C.
A near-record 27% of voters aged 18 to 29 cast ballots in last year’s midterm elections, the second-highest turnout in three decades, according to an analysis of exit poll data by Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Across the country, these young voters overwhelmingly supported Democrats over Republicans.
In 2021, 125 House Democrats voted in favor of an amendment to the For the People Act, which included several Democrat-backed election rule changes, to add a provision to the legislation lowering the voting age for federal elections to 16.
Vote16USA, a group pushing for the voting age to be lowered to 16, argues it’s important to make voting a “habit” for life, 16- and 17-year-olds are ready to vote and deserve a “stake in the game,” and lowering the voting age will “strengthen civics education.”
