In “In Newark, 16-Year-Olds Win the Right to Vote in School Board Races,” published on Jan. 10, Tracey Tully writes:
Residents as young as 16 have been granted the right to vote in school board elections in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, beginning in April, after the City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Wednesday lowering the voting age.
If implemented, the measure would make Newark the largest community in the United States to expand voting rights to younger residents since 1971, when the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 nationwide.
“This would far and away be the most consequential effort to lower the voting age to 16 in the country,” said Andrew Wilkes, chief policy officer at Generation Citizen, a national nonprofit group focused on encouraging young people to participate in democracy.
There have been successful efforts to allow younger teenagers to vote in smaller communities in Maryland and Vermont over the past decade.
In 2013, Takoma Park, Md., a 17,000-person suburb of Washington, became the nation’s first city to let 16-year-olds vote in local elections. Last year, Brattleboro, Vt., lowered its voting age to 16. And in California, residents of Berkeley and Oakland approved referendums in 2016 and 2020 giving 16-year-olds the right to cast ballots in school board elections, but the change has never been implemented.
The initiative in Newark, a city 10 miles west of Manhattan where nearly 90 percent of residents are Black or Latino, is considered a major leap in a nationwide campaign to reinvigorate civics education, encourage greater participation in the democratic process and boost lagging voter turnout.
The article continues:
The City Council approved the resolution after more than two hours of testimony for, and against, lowering the voting age. Most of the people opposed to the new age requirement said students were underprepared to make such crucial decisions, and they urged the city to also bolster its civics curriculum.
Newark’s mayor, Ras J. Baraka, a former high school principal, called it a “direct learning experience.”
“It’s a training ground and opportunity to prepare young folks to actually engage in larger elections,” Mr. Baraka said in an interview.
However, Ms. Tully writes, the idea of giving 16- and 17-year-olds has its critics:
State Republican leaders panned the effort as nothing more than a cynical attempt to pad the Democratic advantage in New Jersey. Democrats in New Jersey already outnumber registered Republicans by 955,000 voters.
“Give me a break,” said Senator Declan O’Scanlon, a Republican who represents Jersey Shore communities.
“They’re not ready to make these decisions,” he said of most 16- and 17-year-olds. “They’re not taxpayers.”
Representative Grace Meng, a New York Democrat, has introduced legislation in Washington to lower the voting age for all elections nationwide to 16, a proposal that has yet to gain widespread public support. A 2019 poll by Hill-HarrisX found that 75 percent of people surveyed opposed allowing 17-year-olds to vote; 84 percent opposed allowing 16-year-olds to vote.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
Should the voting age be lowered to 16? Why or why not? In your view, at what age should people be able to vote in the United States?
What is your reaction to the Newark City Council resolution allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in school board elections? Does it go too far — or not far enough? Do you think the resolution will bolster state and national efforts to lower the voting age?
Mr. Baraka, Newark’s mayor, says that expanding voting rights to younger residents for local elections will provide a “training ground and opportunity to prepare young folks to actually engage in larger elections.” Do you agree? Which arguments in favor of granting the vote to 16-year-olds do you find most convincing?
Critics, however, argue that students are underprepared to make such crucial decisions, and state Republican legislators have panned efforts to expand voting rights as nothing more than an attempt to pad the Democratic advantage in New Jersey. How persuasive are the counterarguments to lowering the voting age?
Nathaniel Esubonteng, a 16-year-old junior at Science Park High School in Newark, says that the City Council resolution means that politicians “will actually have to listen to us.” Will expanding the right to vote to 16-year-olds in local elections, such as for school board, empower young people? Will doing so improve our political system?
Have you been taught civics in school? Do you ever discuss, with your teachers or family, issues facing your community and the country? Do you feel prepared as an informed and active citizen in our democracy? Would having the right to participate in local elections increase your civic engagement?
If you were old enough to vote now, would you? If you are already old enough, have you ever voted? Do you plan to start voting when you turn 18? How important is voting to you?
