Californians consider granting 14-year-olds the right to vote

BERKELEY, Calif. -- On Super Tuesday last month, Robert Reynolds headed for the polls at the local senior center, where he politely requested a ballot from a graying, middle-aged woman. She glanced at his youthful face, and then brusquely turned him away.

Undaunted, Reynolds, a 17-year-old high school junior, then exercised a democratic right -- staging a demonstration with a handful of schoolmates. They chanted slogans and toted signs; one read, "No Taxation Without Representation." The group of six then dutifully headed off to class.

A week later, Reynolds was at the state Capitol lending support for legislation seeking to allow minors -- as young as 14 -- to cast ballots in state and local elections.

"We can be tried in courtrooms as adults; but when it comes to voting, we don't have the same rights as adults," Reynolds said. "There's no reason 16-year-olds shouldn't have the right to vote. There's no reason 14-year-olds shouldn't be allowed to vote. Eighteen is such an arbitrary age."

The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age to 18, but some teens, backed by lawmakers seeking to reverse ballot-box apathy, say it's time to further lower the age limit.

While critics have dismissed efforts to lower the voting age as outlandish, it can hardly be considered another only-in-California phenomenon.

The nascent youth suffrage movement has sprouted in several parts of the country -- from Maine and Massachusetts to Alaska and Hawaii, though only with a smattering of success.

"It's just a matter of time. There's definitely momentum building on this issue right now," said Alex Koroknay-Palicz, president of the Washington-based National Youth Rights Association.

"I think there's always been resistance to every expansion of the franchise. Women didn't always have the right to vote," and neither did blacks, said Koroknay-Palicz, 22.

In Massachusetts, the Legislature has yet to approve Cambridge's plan to lower its voting age to 17.

Baltimore allows minors to vote in local primaries as long as they turn 18 before the general election.

The Maine Legislature is debating a similar law. Advocates in Florida are trying to get a measure placed on the November ballot for voter approval.

Overseas, minors in some countries -- including Israel, Austria, and some parts of Germany -- have already been given the right to vote.

Britain is poised to become the latest European country to lower the voting age, possibly giving voting rights to 16-year-olds, a move backed by the ruling Labor Party.

The proposal in California is by far the most radical of any effort to expand voting in the United States.

Touted as "Training Wheels for Citizenship," the proposed amendment to the state constitution would allow minors as young as 14 to go to the polls, although their votes would be counted on a sliding scale. Votes cast by 14- and 15-year-olds would be counted as one-fourth of a full vote, and those cast by 16- and 17-year-olds would be counted as one-half.

The measure, which faces a committee hearing early next month, has already come under fire from some critics who say the sliding scale diminishes the principle of "one person, one vote."

Two previous attempts in California to lower the voting age garnered little attention and failed, including one similar to that in Baltimore. But the state's latest experiment to boost electoral participation has garnered unusual publicity, perhaps because of its audacity.

"It is sad that so many of our young people today are deserting our voting ranks in ever larger numbers," state Senator John Vasconcellos, who coauthored the bill, said during a news conference last month.

While nearly two-thirds of those between 18 and 25 are registered to vote, only a fifth are likely to cast ballots, according to a study by the Public Policy Institute of California. Vasconcellos says that allowing teens to vote will get them into the habit sooner. He dismisses the notion that teens are ill prepared for the responsibility.

"Without any doubt, our younger Californians today -- with ubiquitous televisions, the World Wide Web, widespread cellphones, and many other forms of instant communication and information -- are much better informed than were any of us at their age," said Vasconcellos, Democrat of San Jose.

Young people aren't given enough credit, said Koroknay-Palicz, of the youth rights association. "It doesn't matter if you're a complete idiot, or even if you can't spell your name. If you're 18, you've got the right to vote."

While well intentioned, the Vasconcellos proposal takes the wrong approach, said Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for the California Republican Party, which has not taken an official stand.

"This is certainly not the way to increase voter participation," Hanretty said. "It seems appropriate that 18-year-olds have the right to vote -- but certainly not children, who are not yet responsible to care for themselves."

Elliot Aglioni, 15, who took part in the Berkeley demonstration, disagrees. "It might not seem all that crazy, if adults would only think about it objectively."

Youth suffrage advocates note that many teens pay taxes, and they borrow a phrase out of their American history books to equate their lack of vote as taxation without representation. Allowing teens to vote, they argue, could force politicians to be more responsive to youth issues.

The League of Women Voters of California has not expressed a position on the latest California bill, said its program director, Trudy Schafer. But the effort, she predicted, could result in interesting and fierce debate.

That debate would be welcomed, said Jay Strell, spokesman for Rock the Vote, which works to increase political participation among the country's youth.

"Having young people involved in the process is important," Strell said. "Within reason, lowering the voting age even further should certainly be worth exploring. But in terms of how young is too young, I can't say."