Protesters call for lowering of voting age

Everyone from President Bush to Sean ''P. Diddy" Combs and John F. Kerry to Ice Cube is trying to lure 18- to 25-year-olds to the polls this November.

But at least one group wants to open voting booths to an even younger crowd: people under 18.

Youths who work pay taxes, David Schneider-Joseph, president of Americans for a Society Free from Age Restrictions, noted yesterday during a sparsely attended rally on the Boston Common. ''That's taxation without representation."

Schneider-Joseph was one of a half-dozen protesters who held yellow ''Lower the Voting Age" signs and drew puzzled looks from passersby.

The group, which contends it has 1,200 members nationwide, argues that children should be allowed to vote, drink alcohol, and drive as soon as they themselves believe they're ready. They also believe children should choose whether to attend school.

Some people strolling the Common passionately disagreed. ''You've got to be kidding me," said David Wheeler, 48, of Tampa. ''I've got three boys -- 16, 14, and 9 years old. They're totally unaware."

''Our 16-year-old thinks he knows everything," agreed his wife, Lori, 46. ''But I wouldn't leave him alone, let alone let him vote for the president of the United States."

But Schneider-Joseph wouldn't budge. Lack of competency is no argument for restricting voting, he said, arguing that many adults wouldn't clear that hurdle. He would support a short qualifying test, but adults should take it too, the 20-year-old computer programmer from Waltham said.

Children might be more aware -- and more conscientious voters later -- if they got interested earlier, he said. In that way, his group's mission differs from movements such as MTV's Rock the Vote and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network's campaign to register young voters.

''Rock the Vote tries to get people interested who weren't before," he said. ''[We] try to allow people who are interested to vote."

Schneider-Joseph, who joined the cause for youth rights at 16 because he wanted to control his education, has some company in his quest. The Cambridge City Council voted in 2002 to lower the municipal voting age to 17 years old, but the Legislature has not approved the measure.

In California, legislators are considering a law that would count teens as partial voters in local and state elections, with a 14- to 16-year-old seen as one-quarter of an adult and a 16- to 18-year-old as half.

Like the presidential candidates and boosters of the youth vote, the ''lower the voting age" proponents may face another, perhaps more difficult opponent -- youth apathy. Yesterday's event, with just a handful of demonstrators, might have been small because it was originally scheduled for Saturday, a day of massive rainstorms, Schneider-Joseph said. But lack of interest could be a factor, too, he conceded.

But he remained undaunted and said his group will continue to fight for children's voting rights, regardless of how many want to cast ballots. ''The right not to vote is also part of the right to vote," he reasoned.