Ballots Not Bullets
By Albert B. Kelly
A few years ago in this same space, I advocated for lowering
the voting age so that 16 and 17 year-olds could vote, if not across the board
in federal elections, then maybe in New Jersey for county and municipal
elections. If we need to start even smaller, then perhaps legislation in
Trenton allowing municipalities to lower their voting age for local elections
if they so choose.
Back then, after doing some reading, I shared what I’d found
in support of the idea which included studies from Austria confirming that
extending voting rights to 16 and 17 year-olds results in higher turnout for
first-time voters and that these voters continue to turn out at the polls years
later. There was also a study in Denmark
that noted that 18 year olds were far more likely to cast a "first
vote" than 19 year olds and that each passing month of age resulted in
further declines in "first vote" turnout.
The National Youth Rights Association noted a “trickle up”
effect when 16 and 17 year-olds were able to vote- they were more engaged on
the issues affecting them and their families. Apparently participating nurtures
a civic-mindedness that lasts a lifetime in these young people.
I also highlighted 2 Maryland communities (Hyattsville and
Takoma Park) that extended municipal voting to 16 and 17 year olds successfully
and noted that several nations including Austria, Germany, and the UK extended
voting to 16 year olds for national and local elections. So the idea has been
studied, including by Rutgers in 2011. I also shared some additional reasons
for lowering the voting age.
For example, over 200,000 juveniles are tried as adults each
year in this country many ranging in age from 15-17 years old. They can be
punished as adults, but they can’t vote. Yet many 16 and 17 year-olds begin to
drive, hold their first jobs, pay taxes and comprise a much sought-after
consumer group. They can spend, they just can’t vote.
At the age of 16, many teens start making life-altering
decisions like where to go to college or even if they should go to college. At
this point in their lives they start picking career tracks or they take SAT
tests where the scores shape their futures, yet they can’t vote in our
elections.
I thought back to when we lowered the voting age from 21
down to 18. At that time, the argument was that young people could be drafted,
but they couldn’t vote for the people with the power to send them off to fight
and bleed and die in the jungles of Vietnam or wherever. That was a powerful argument
and the voting age was lowered.
Today, it’s not about being drafted or sent to bleed and die
in Vietnam, it’s even worse than that- it’s about being shot like fish in a
barrel in their high school classrooms. If we can’t protect them, at least we
should be accountable to them in the only way that matters by giving them the
ballot and letting them have a say.
A recent NY Times editorial noted the young voices calling
for gun control in the wake of the most recent (there’s been 270 since
columbine) school-related shooting in Parkland, Fla. and the fact that they are
largely powerless to elect lawmakers responsive to their issues. A little over
a week ago, hundreds of thousands of teens marched on the Capital calling for
action. Against this backdrop, the editorial called for lowering the federal
voting age to 16.
Youth activism isn’t confined to just gun control and school
shootings. In 2015 a remarkable group of twenty-one youths brought a lawsuit
against the federal government arguing that the government is violating their
constitutional rights by failing to act on climate change. Two administrations
worked to get the lawsuit dismissed but so far they’ve failed.
At last check, a federal appeals court ruled back in early
March that the case can proceed to trial. According to Inside Climate News,
these young people are asking the court to force the government to enact
policies that would cut the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and end subsidies
to fossil fuel companies.
Whether its gun control, school shootings or climate change;
these young people don’t want to destroy the system, they want to work within
the rules to try and make things better. Let’s help them out a little by giving
them the ballot…lord knows they’ve gotten enough bullets.