And now we’ve completed the 7th run of #16tovote on the 16th! Our monthly 24-hour Twitter campaign to raise awareness of lowering the voting age! This one was a little low-key, where despite having a decent total tweets and retweets of about 208, number of participants was only 30. Nonetheless, the event still went on and still spread the word about lowering the voting age to a lot of people, even several people who’d never heard of the cause before and were delighted! The next one will, of course, be Thursday, September 16. But for now, here’s the recap!
youthrights Let’s get another #16tovote on the 16th started! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age! http://bit.ly/cavxOT
youthrights Schwarzenegger wants to ban violent video games from youth. http://bit.ly/baOTE3 That is, from people who can’t vote against him. #16tovote
youthrights But funnily enough, Schwarzenegger’s home country of Austria lowered the voting age to 16 three years ago. #16tovote
youthrights Wondering what’s going on? #16tovote on the 16th is our monthly event to tweet a lot about why the voting age needs to be lowered. #16tovote
youthrights If you support lowering the voting age, and of course you do, speak up! And use the hashtag. #16tovote (more…)
Great to see more progress over in Europe on lowering the voting age!
The Finnish Justice Minister, Tuija Brax (Greens) recently proposed lowering the minimum voting age in Finland to 16 for future municipal elections. Brax believes that municipal elections are the perfect learning grounds for younger voters.
The aim of lowering the voting age is simply to improve voter turnout. According to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the voter turnout among young people aged 18-29 in Western Europe is systematically lower than the average turnout – and Finland is no exception. Turnout among young people is the lowest of any age group in Finland, and the government wishes to reverse this trend.
Any changes to the voting age must be ratified by two consecutive parliaments, according to the constitution, meaning that any change is not possible before the 2012 municipal elections. The financial cost of any change has been estimated to be between 80,000 and 750,000 euros, depending on the costs of campaigns aimed at improving young voter turnout. No decision will be made on the national or local level until studies currently underway have been concluded sometime in the spring of 2011. However, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has already lowered the voting age in this year’s parish elections to 16.
We’ve now had the sixth run of #16tovote on the 16th! As usual, we all got on Twitter and tweeted why we want a lower voting age, with the #16tovote hashtag. This was the second time it’s been on a Friday. It had a lot of the usual spouting of short talking points, and it even got a bit conversational here and there. The next will be Monday, August 16, of course. As usual, here’s the recap!
Before the Committee of the Whole
of the Council of the District of Columbia
Testimony of
Larry T. Pretlow II, President
On behalf of the
DC Chapter of the National Youth Rights Association
on
Reforming the Youth Advisory Council
July 10, 2010
First of all, thank you to Chairman Gray and the Council for holding this hearing and inviting the youth of the city to come and share their views on issues that affect us all. As President of the DC Chapter of the National Youth Rights Association I understand all too well the difficulties young people have in being heard and being taken seriously. This is a wonderful opportunity and I thank the Council for extending this invitation to the youth of the city.
As we have seen so far here today, young people have many views, many needs, and many desires from their elected officials. Too often issues affecting young people are decided without their input or involvement. Often without them even knowing what is going on until it is too late. This hearing is a wonderful opportunity not just for young people to express themselves, but for the DC City Council to understand the desires of this very important part of their constituency.
This idea of young people sharing their concerns with the council is so great, I’d like to see it happen more often than every few years. DC needs a permanent avenue for soliciting the opinions of young residents and for giving them direct influence over the laws and rules that govern their lives. Giving young people a permanent place within city government will benefit DC youth and DC government alike.
Since 2002 DC has had a Youth Advisory Council. Some of our members have served on this council and it serves an important function, however there are several structural reasons that prevent the Youth Advisory Council from doing the most amount of good for the city and for our youth. If the DC Youth Advisory Council is to be a credible representative of our city’s youth, it needs to be able to speak freely and independently. As it is currently housed within the mayor’s office, YAC is currently unable to do this. Pressure has been placed on the YAC to prevent it from speaking out against the mayor or his policies. As long as the YAC continues to be under the power of the mayor’s office it will never be able to speak freely or be a true voice for youth. Therefore NYRA-DC strongly urges that the Youth Advisory Council be made independent of the mayor’s office.
I am concerned also whether the Youth Advisory Council is truly representing the needs and wishes of the District’s youth. Many youth are not even aware of the Youth Advisory Council and fewer yet regularly communicate with their representatives on the Council. I myself am running for ANC commissioner in Ward 8 and know that there is nothing that connects a representative to the people better than running for office and campaigning for votes. To make the YAC truly representative of DC’s youth, NYRA-DC strongly urges that Youth Advisory Council members be elected once a year by DC students, the elections could be administered by DC’s high schools.
Finally, there is nothing more dis-empowering than to be promised an opportunity to be heard, express your views, and impact the lives of District residents and then be ignored. As you can see here today there are many youth who have opinions about DC laws because so many of DC laws affect them. To truly be given an opportunity to represent the interests of youth, the Youth Advisory Council must be given real, substantive decision making ability on the DC City Council. Unlike other DC residents, young people under 18 cannot vote for the Mayor, cannot vote for the Council, cannot vote for ANC, or any other office in the city. They are taxed, but are not represented. To ensure the Youth Advisory Council is fully able to represent our youth, NYRA-DC strongly urges that the YAC be given one vote on the DC City Council.
Our city knows what it is like to not control its destiny. Our city knows what it is like to face taxation without representation. Our city knows what it is like to have a non-voting delegate. Please do not disenfranchise young people the way that DC is itself disenfranchised. Please do the right thing and give our youth a real voice, a real say, and a real vote. Thank you.
Larry T. Pretlow II
President
National Youth Rights Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area
Phone: 301-979-5881
E-mail: Larry@dc.youthrights.org
Website: http://dc.youthrights.org
The fifth run of #16tovote on the 16th, our monthly Twitter campaign to raise awareness of lowering the voting age, has come and gone. Just like before, youth rights supporters on Twitter tweeted and retweeted a lot about lowering the voting age, using the #16tovote hashtag, spreading the word to all of their followers. While some of our usual participants were conspicuously absent, we got a lot of new participants who eagerly jumped into the fun! Also, since school is out now, some who usually couldn’t participate until late afternoon were able to get into it earlier in the day.
The sixth run will be, of course, on Friday, July 16. If you’re not already following NYRA on Twitter, do it now!
But for now, here’s the recap of the June edition of #16tovote on the 16th!
youthrights Hey, everybody! It’s time for yet another… #16tovote on the 16th!!! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age - http://bit.ly/cavxOT
teh_maxh Yay, it’s #16tovote day!
youthrights #16tovote on the 16th is our day we tweet and retweet a lot about why the voting age needs to be lowered! With the #16tovote hashtag. (more…)
The fourth run of #16tovote on the 16th has been a success! Went about the same as last month’s, with about the same number of participants, and as usual they churned out some more great reasons, points, links, and other good stuff in support of lowering the voting age. Participants consisted of some veteran #16tovote on the 16th tweeters as well as awesome new ones! This is the first one that has been on a weekend, a Sunday, as the first two were on Tuesdays and the last one a Friday. The next one on June 16 will be a Wednesday. To join in the excitement, be sure to follow NYRA on Twitter for all the relevant info and good pro-youth rights stuff to retweet!
youthrights Don’t exclude and ignore teens. Educate them. Engage them. Include them. Lower the voting age! #16tovote
arclights It takes just a few months to get tired of #16tovote on the 16th. But I’m not as tired of it as, at 16, I was of not being able to vote.
youthrights Teens pay billions in sales and income taxes yet have no vote. Can you say “taxation without representation”? #16tovote
youthrights 14-year-old Alfie McKenzie voted underage in the UK election! - http://bit.ly/9I8LWe - Go Alfie! #16tovote
youthrights “Teens will vote like their parents.” Really? Someone might vote the same as someone else? That’s a reason for denying suffrage? #16tovote (more…)
I have been following the UK election pretty closely for an American and I am fascinated. The seeming collapse of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Labour Party, the resurgence of the Conservatives, and the meteoric rise of Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats after being a perennial also-ran. The drama of having a three-way race and all the implications and possibilities it creates have captivated me. For years third parties in this country have claimed that if they were just allowed to participate in the debates they’d finally get their message heard and be taken seriously by the voters. Nick Clegg’s stunning victory in the first UK election debate certainly makes a strong case for it.
One trouble, though, is while some polls have the Liberal Democrats at 2nd in the popular vote (after the first debate some were even showing 1st) they almost certainly will be in third when it comes to the number of seats in the House of Commons. Britain, like the US, has a first-past-the-post election system. This system has always doomed the viability of a third party and part of the reason why electoral reform is a top priority for the Liberal Democrats.
What is exciting about this election is not the one-time presence of a vocal, active third party, but the possibility for lasting change to the British system. Proposals have been floated by all three parties for having an elected House of Lords, an initiative process, a way to recall unpopular or corrupt MPs, having a written constitution (only 220 years late guys), proportional representation, instant run-off voting (called the alternative vote there), fixed-term parliaments, reducing the size of parliament, and, what is most exciting for me, lowering the voting age to 16.
Both the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party have come out in favor (or perhaps “favour”) of lowering the voting age to 16 in UK elections. Austria, parts of Germany & Switzerland, and even parts of the UK (Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey) have already lowered their voting ages to 16. It is an issue that has been up for active discussion here in the United States as well, but has never really taken off.
It may be easy for us to ignore Austria or the tiny island of Guernsey, but if the United Kingdom, our long estranged then reconciled mother country, were to go 16 nationwide? We would have to sit up and pay attention. 16 and 17 year old high school students going to the polls and casting ballots that decide the fate of a nation? Yes, it could soon happen and it would actually be welcome news both for young people and for democracy.
Back in the days when we broke from our aforementioned mother country, our forefathers ranted and raved about taxation without representation. It wasn’t just an effective slogan, it was a valid complaint about relations between the government and its citizens (or, I suppose, subjects). To take money out of someone’s pocket without giving them a voice as to how much or what it is spent on is as tyrannical a concept today as it was in 1776. The trouble is both our countries continue to do it today. Young people have jobs and pay taxes (billions in fact) but have zero say about it.
Not only are young people paying billions in tax, they are also paying into Social Security, a system which may or may not be there when they get older. Most teens I’ve talked to would like to see something done about this faltering program, but our elected officials are pretty content to just keep things the way they are and not rock the boat. Of course their voters are all old enough that they’ll get theirs, so what do they care about their kids and grandkids? Frankly the selfishness of our elders seems to be a defining characteristic of our politics nowadays. Will there be a planet left for our grand children? Who cares, SUVs for everyone! Will there be an economy left for our kids? Who cares, trillion dollar deficits for all!
When young people can’t vote, they don’t have a say in the policies that affect their lives. War, the economy, government spending, the environment, health care, and everything else will continue to hurt their interests if they don’t have a voice. If they don’t have a vote.
Critics say that young people lack the maturity, experience and intelligence necessary to vote. Considering the selfish, short-sighted policies our elders vote for time and time again, are we really going to be foolish enough to call this mature? Somewhere around a third of Democrats believe Bush was behind 9/11 and somewhere around a third of Republicans believe Obama isn’t a US citizen. Are we really calling these voters intelligent?
Frankly with the rancorous debate that has crippled Washington for years, having some fresh eyes on the problems we face and fresh voters not wedded to biter partisanship like our elders, lowering the voting age can only make things better. I certainly am looking forward to trying and look forward to the United Kingdom leading the way.
The Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party both support lowering the voting age to 16 (as well as smaller parties in Scotland, Wales, and the Greens). Because of the electoral system it is unlikely the LibDems will have enough seats to form the government themselves, but it is looking increasingly likely there will be a “hung parliament’ and no party will have a majority of the seats. If that is the case the Liberal Democrats could play kingmaker in this election, throwing their support to the Conservatives or Labour. If they go with Labour it seems almost certain that within the next 2-3 years we will see our friends across the pond lower their voting age to 16.
This is an exciting time for people on either side of the Atlantic and a watershed election for us all.
The third #16tovote on the 16th has now gone by! Just like in February and March, we all got on Twitter and tweeted reasons, anecdotes, links, and whatever else supporting lowering the voting age, with the #16tovote hashtag. While not quite as many people participated this time, we still got a whole lot of great #16tovote tweets! Just like before, here are the originals below!
The fourth #16tovote on the 16th will of course be Sunday, May 16!
teh_maxh If you don’t support #16tovote, THE TERRORISTS WIN.
youthrights And now #16tovote on the 16th has begun! Here are Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age! - http://bit.ly/cavxOT #16tovote
youthrights New to #16tovote on the 16th? On the 16th of the month, we tweet and retweet a lot about lowering the voting age! Join in! #16tovote (more…)
We had our second #16tovote on the 16th yesterday, and it was even bigger than last month’s! #16tovote on the 16th is our monthly event on Twitter to raise awareness of lowering the voting age by tweeting about the voting age throughout the day with the hashtag “#16tovote“. A total of roughly 52 people made #16tovote tweets, with the number of tweets and retweets totaling around 182! And we do it all again on Friday, April 16!
Anyway, here are yesterday’s tweets!
teh_maxh #16tovote today!
youthrights It is now… #16tovote on the 16th! To start: Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age! - http://bit.ly/cavxOT #16tovote
youthrights RT @thegreathal If voting rights extended to 16yos, it creates a constituency that’ll vote to fund schools & further youth rights #16tovote (more…)
The secretary of the Joventut de la Generalitat, Eugeni Villalbí, believes that if at age 16 can decide to abort children, work, and can change their treatment before the judicial system they must also be able to vote
The secretary of the Joventut de la Generalitat, Eugeni Villalbí, has been in favour of young people voting at 16 and, as explained in an interview with ACN, will work to include this premise in the National Pacte per la Joventut. He said that at this age they are treated as adults in many respects, but can not exercise the primary right to decide in a democracy.
Definitely! We of course wish them luck with this change, in the quest for youth suffrage! While I don’t know a whole lot about teens’ situation in Spain, here in the United States, at 16 you can be charged as an adult for most crimes, considered competent enough to have known better (even for crimes that are only crimes because of your young age, in a weird bit of circular reasoning) but not competent enough to vote for or against who made these rules to begin with. The needs of youth can never be fully met as long as they do not have a ballot.
So here’s hoping Spain makes this important change for their youth and their future, and that other countries will be doing the same soon!
Of course, don’t want to congratulate Spain just yet, as we’ve heard they and France are also considering nationwide youth curfews! Ugh!
Lower the voting age? YES! Enacting youth curfews? NO!
Children do not constitute anyone's property: they are neither the property of their parents nor even of society. They belong only to their own future freedom. - Mikhail Bakunin