Part Three: The Action

Despite the push from young activists, only a handful of local governments have been successful in lowering the voting age. Takoma Park, Maryland was the first city to lower the voting age to 16 for local elections in 2013; it saw a 44% voter turnout rate for under-18 voters in a mayoral election the year the law changed, despite a low turnout rate of 11% overall. After Takoma took the first step, a handful of other nearby suburbs followed suit. Berkeley, California voted overwhelmingly in favor of giving 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in school board elections in 2016, and Oakland, California did the same in 2020. 

Many more municipalities have tried and been unsuccessful.

A bill in Utah that would have given school boards the freedom to allow 16- and 17- year olds to vote was struck down in March, and separate proposals in San Francisco were rejected by narrow margins in 2016 and in 2020. At a broader level, fourteen states have introduced bills in the last decade or so to lower the voting age—all have failed.

But though most lawmakers and constituents evidently aren’t ready to take that leap, some states have already enacted laws that, while not lowering the voting age to 16, are intended to bolster youth voter turnout. In 18 states and Washington, D.C., 17-year-olds are allowed to vote in primary elections if they’ll be 18 by the time a general election rolls around. In Colorado’s presidential primary last year, 17-year-olds who had this privilege turned out at a rate around equal to the state’s overall rate, at over 45%. Additionally, most states have some form of pre-registration, which allows teens to register to vote before they turn 18, so that they are added to voter rolls when they turn 18.