Somerville politicians support home rule petition to lower local voting age to 16

Somerville political leaders called for the passage of a local home rule petition which would allow Somerville to lower its voting age to 16 for municipal elections, in testimony at the Massachusetts State House on Jan. 22.

The lobbying drive follows the Somerville City Council'sunanimous passage of the petition in May 2019 calling for the change.

Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, a longtime advocate of lowering the municipal voting age, asserted that it makes sense to lower the local voting age, since teenagers are already engaged in a great deal of political activism.

“I have been, as well as millions of other people, inspired by the leadership of the youth in this nation around issues such as ending gun violence and March for our Lives or on climate action,” Curtatone said. “Young people are very much aware of what’s happening.”

Curtatone explained that young people deserve a stake in their own government with which they interact daily, because many Somerville teenagers are active in the community and interact with the city government in a number of ways.

“We make decisions, especially in our schools, that impact our children’s lives in nature,” Curtatone said. “These are the kids that are learning to drive on our streets. These are the kids who participate, usually, in their first job at our recreation department. Obviously, their lives are being shaped and molded in our public schools.”

For these reasons, Curtatone viewed lowering the voting age as important for Somerville giving its young people an opportunity to participate in their government.

“I think they deserve the opportunity while they’re here, because some of them — as they move on to college — may not come back to have a say at how their lives have been shaped,” Curtatone said.

Somerville isn’t the first city to attempt lowering the voting age. Since 2013, four cities in Maryland — Takoma Park, Riverdale Park, Hyattsville and Greenbelt — have successfully changed their local voting laws to grant the right to vote to 16 and 17-year-olds for municipal elections.

Alan Solomont, dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, said that these changes have resulted in a positive impact across the community.

“In Takoma [Park], Maryland, the turnout of 16 [and] 17-year-olds is higher than the turnout of eighteen and nineteen-year-olds,” Solomont said.

In order to request new powers from the state government, municipalities in Massachusetts must submit a home rule petition to the state legislature. Should the request be approved, Somerville would be able to begin the process of lowering its local voting age.

State Representative Christine Barber, a Democrat who represents Somerville and Medford in the Massachusetts State Legislature, originally filed the Home Rule petition in the state legislature.

She is encouraged by the level of activism coming from young people, hoping that a lowered voting age would help to connect teenagers to their representatives and bring about positive change in their communities.

“I am in support of Somerville lowering the voting age,” Barber wrote to the Daily in an email. “Young people are impacted by so many issues and should have a say in electing representatives. We have seen impressive youth activism recently around the climate, education, housing, and so many other issues. I look forward to continuing to work with the young people in our communities to make progressive and positive changes.”

Somerville’s local initiative to lower the voting age in local elections is part of a larger, national effort to enfranchise young people. Representative Ayanna Pressley, who represents Somerville in the US House of Representatives, proposed an amendment in House Resolution 1, also known as the For the People Act of 2019 that would lower the voting age to sixteen in all federal elections.

“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,” the amendment read, which failed.

According to Solomont, there are a number of reasons lowering the voting age at the state or national level could have positive benefits on voter participation. He said that allowing young people to vote at a younger age will likely increase voter participation in the future, as those who vote when they’re younger will continue to vote as they increase in age.

“One of the reasons I am for it is, I believe, that if the voting age is lowered it will increase the [voter] turnout of people generally,” Solomont said. “If kids are voting at the age of 16, they may also influence their parents to show up.”

Felix Brody, a senior at Somerville High School and a youth voting activist, specified that people are more likely to begin healthy voting habits in high school than after enrolling in college.

“16 year olds and 17 year olds are super grounded in their municipalities,” Brody told the Daily. “[Once I go to college in Pennsylvania], I don’t care who’s on the school board [in Somerville] anymore. That’s not affecting me. I [won’t be] grounded in this community anymore because I’m spending 90 percent of my time in Pennsylvania.”

Introducing people to voting at 16 years old not only makes sense, but is easier than doing so at older ages, according to Solomont. He added that younger voters are in a more stable place since they are generally still supported by their parents.

“Getting young people to start voting when they’re 16 or 17 and they’re still living at home [is ideal],” Solomont said. “It seems to be a better way to launch people into voting than waiting till they’re 18 when they’re living more transient lives. They may not be in school anymore, or they may have moved to college.”

Lidya Woldeysus, the student co-chair of JumboVote, emphasized that young people are also incredibly involved in effecting change at the national level as well as in the community.

"Young people are often at the forefront of those movements and are very, very engaged," Woldeysus, a sophomore, said. "I think that there's a large trend across the whole United States that young people want to be heard and they want to use their voices for change."

Brody described the environment in his high school where his peers are very passionate about enacting change in their community, as Woldeyesus claimed.

“I see these kids every day express frustrations [with their community],” Brody said. “These are people that are passionate. They understand what needs to happen more fundamentally than anyone else in any other age group.”

J. Cottle, MassVote’s Young Civic Leader Coordinator, echoed Brody’s sentiments. Cottle also argued that lowering the voting age will, by association, increase the civic participation of adults who live with young voters.

“There’s data that shows that in households where young people can vote, the civic engagement of that household increases,” Cottle said.

Solomont addressed the claims raised by opponents of the legislation, who argue that a 16-year-old's brain is not developed enough to make the consequential rational decisions required of voters.

“There’s an interesting piece of research that says the emotional part of the brain [in teenagers] is not fully developed, but the rational part of the brain, the logical part has fully developed,” Solomont said.

Other objections raised by opponents of lowering the voting age include immaturity, inexperience or fears of voting Democrat among young voters, according to a May 2019 poll by the Western New England University Polling Institute.

The poll also found that 69% of Republican Massachusetts voters strongly opposed lowering the municipal voting age, while only 20% of Democratic Massachusetts voters strongly opposed it.

On the issue of immaturity, however, Brody rejected the claims made by the petition's opponents.

“At age 16 you have the same political maturity as an 18-year-old,” Brody said. “You have the same logical long-term decision-making process called cold cognition [at 16] that you would at 18.”

Brody argued that lowering the voting age nationally would positively impact the country as a whole.

“Whenever we’ve expanded our voting pool, the country gets a little bit better,” Brody said. “We move towards progress. We have a more representative voting population. And that’s really important.”

Alexander Thompson contributed reporting to this article.