At the same time that strides are being taken for youth rights in New York, progress towards a lower voting age is being made across the country, in California. In the state Assembly, Speaker-elect Karen Bass supports a lower voting age, and has been in contact with local youth rights activists, including NYRA Director Alex Hull-Richter, about the issue. Also, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, former California state senator, won a special election on April 8 to replace the late Congressman Tom Lantos in the U.S. House of Representatives. Speier is a youth rights supporter who advocates a lower voting age. During her time in the California state government, she filed legislation to lower the voting age in that state, and she was endorsed by NYRA-Berkeley when she ran for lieutenant governor.
Speier isn’t the only advocate of youth suffrage in the U.S. Congress. Congresswoman Maxine Waters also wants the voting age lowered, and not only has Congressman and former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich publicly advocated lowering the voting age, but it is rumored he may introduce federal legislation to do just that.
