Arizona’s Cronkite News Service reports that a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution “would let 16-year-olds vote in state elections, a move supporters hope would boost interest in elections and lead to greater turnout of young voters.” The state legislature is considering placing a ballot question on the November ballot asking voters if they support…
Nebraska state Sen. Tyson Larson’s effort to reduce the age to serve as governor, in the state legislature, or in other state offices to 18 died this week due to a filibuster by state Sen. Ernie Chambers. Even after Larson offered to remove offices other than the legislature from his bill, Chambers would not give in,…
Sixteen-year-olds can go to work, be taxed, drop out of school, be tried as adults, and operate motor vehicles. It makes sense to give them the vote. Here are some common arguments against it that simply do not hold up: “Young people do not know enough to vote intelligently.” The results of the National Assessment…
Nebraska is considering lowering the minimum age to hold state office to 18. Currently, Nebraska “imposes an age minimum of 21 for state senators and 30 to serve as a governor, lieutenant governor or Supreme Court justice,” according to The Associated Press. A bill introduced by Republican state legislator Tyson Larson, who is 29, would…
Most people would probably agree that tobacco smoking is bad, and that it is worthwhile to try to reduce its prevalence. But the recent trend toward raising the legal minimum age for purchase from 18 to 21 is the wrong approach. One indicator of officially sanctioned ageism is policymakers’ willingness to artificially increase the length…
NPR’s All Things Considered reported Monday, on the air and online, about how “unlikely advocates” are pushing for a reduction in the voting age in the District of Columbia. Michelle Blackwell, NRS said, is “not your typical Washington politico. In D.C., the 44-year-old is better known as one of the top go-go singers around. ……
Fifteen-year-old Mahsiah Imes of Jersey City, New Jersey, is leading an effort to lower the city’s voting age in local elections to 16. The Jersey Journal reports that his effort “is part of a nationwide push to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 to ignite civic engagement among younger citizens.” Imes told the…
Several European nations are considering lowering their voting age to 16. A bill to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16 in local elections is advancing in the Estonian parliament, while Ireland’s Fianna Fáil party is calling for a voting age reduction in local elections by 2019. Meanwhile, scholars at the UK’s University of…
A Washington Post op-ed by William Frey of the Brookings Institution, a population studies professor at the University of Michigan, makes a good case for lowering the voting age. Frey writes that “nearly half of the nation’s under-18 population is made up of racial minorities, while 70 percent of voting-age citizens are white. The United…
Bridgeton, New Jersey, Mayor Al Kelly backs lowering the voting age to 16. In The South Jersey Times, Kelly writes, “In many states, 16 and 17-year-olds begin to drive and many hold their first jobs at that age, and should they have a job, they pay taxes. They also become bona fide shoppers and consumers….
