Should 16- and 17-year-olds be allowed to vote? Some local politicians say yes

BOSTON — Should 16- and 17-year-olds be allowed to vote?

Some local politicians say: Yes.

“We really think it’s an idea whose time has come,” says Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok about her petition to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in municipal elections.

The Council passed it and Mayor Michelle Wu signed it.

“Any decision that we’re making today, whether it’s climate change, it’s on the big picture economic issues like how we make sure there are good jobs in the future, affordable housing, these are all the things that are going to affect our young people for decades,” added Bok.

It’s not just Boston.

Communities like Cambridge, Somerville, Concord and Brookline have all passed or considered proposals to lower the voting age.

After a city or town approves a younger voting age, they still need to get the legislature and governor to sign off on it before anyone under the age of 18 casts a ballot.

The people Boston 25 asked generally support the idea.

A 19-year-old man who votes told us: “It’s really important that young people should be able to vote and have a say in the future of the country they’re going to be living in.”

An older man said he supports it, as long as “There’s some form of education to give them civic awareness.”

Another young man believes young people would “Be as fit as many Americans that vote today.”

Thomas Whalen, a professor of political science at Boston University, said, “American democracy is evolving and has evolved over the last 200 years and in every step of the way the right to vote has expanded and this is just the latest trend.”

He isn’t surprised many Democrats and progressives support expanding voter eligibility while some Republicans talk about raising the minimum age to 21 or even 25.

“It certainly is a partisan political factor. Democrats seem to do much better with younger voters. In the last national election, I think it was over a 30-point difference between the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate.”

Although Whalen supports more voting access, he says not all young people would be ready for this responsibility.

“The con would be young people could be easily manipulated by social media and certain charismatic candidates,” Whalen said.

Councilor Bok thinks in the long term, democracy would reap benefits by this change.

“Sometimes people are just thinking, should the 16-year-old vote, should the 17-year-old vote?” Bok said. “Really the way to think is by having our 16- and 17-year-olds vote in local elections. We’re going to have long-term voters, long-term participants in our democracy thru their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond.”

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