Democrat Vote Grab: Massachusetts Town Looks to Lower Voting Age to 16

Tuesday, November 26, 2019
By Paul Martin

by James Murphy
TheNewAmerican.com
Tuesday, 26 November 2019

On November 21, the Town of Brookline, Massachusetts, voted in a town meeting to seek approval from the state to lower the voting age in town to 16 years old. The town voted 142-71 in favor of the measure.

If approved by the state, the new rule would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in municipal elections and, when registered, to become a town meeting member.

“These elections directly impact these young people,” said board member Raul Fernandez, a proponent of the lowered voting age.

“At the age of 16, they can start working and paying taxes on that work,” Fernandez explained. “There’s no reason why these young people should not have a say in our politics and actually giving them a say in our politics will make us even better.”

By that reasoning, shouldn’t 16-year-olds be allowed to join the military, use alcohol, and purchase tobacco as well? It’s odd that the people most in favor of letting children vote are often the ones who tend to put the most restrictions on those same youth.

The town will next send a Home Rule Petition — a request from a municipality to the state for some new type of local power — on to their representatives at the capital in Boston where the legislature would have to pass the measure in order to give Brookline the permission to allow 16-year-olds to vote in local elections.

The nearby city of Somerville has also approved allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections and is waiting on their own Home Rule Petition to be approved by the state legislature. Other Massachusetts municipalities such as Concord and Northampton have also pursued legislation allowing 16-year-olds to vote. Organizations such as Vote16USA are pressing for younger people to vote, not only in Massachusetts, but all over the country.

In 2013, the City of Takoma Park, Maryland, became the first jurisdiction in the United States to allow citizens as young as 16 to vote in local elections. Hyattsville and Greenbelt, also in Maryland, have joined Takoma Park since then. The City of Berkeley in California also allows teens as young as 16 to vote but only in schoolboard elections.

The “Youth Suffrage” movement is gaining ground in the United States with Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang even endorsing it. “Squad” member in good standing Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) even introduced legislation back in March to lower the voting age at the federal level.

The one-page amendment had a simple message: “A State may not refuse to permit an individual to register to vote or vote in an election for Federal office held in the State on the grounds of the individual’s age if the individual will be at least 16 years of age on the date of the election.”

Thankfully, we’re not there yet. But what’s up with all the kid-voting advocacy?

The Rest…HERE

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