Youth Vote Advocates face opposition over bill permitting 16-17 local ballots

In one of Vermont’s most demographically oldest towns, it was surprisingly the youngest residents who wished to have a seat in local elections. After a ten-year campaign led by local students, Brattleboro became the first town in Vermont and the country to pass the Youth Vote, an initiative to lower the voting age to 16-year-olds for local elections. It wasn’t easy. Beneath the debates about whether adolescents' brains can even handle such mature decisions lies a deeper concern: political power. What drives the hesitation to give teenagers a vote? Who gets to be part of the conversation? Who gets to be taken seriously?

Anya Khera, a high school student who has been a leading youth organizer since 2023, says, “There were so many students who were engaged and so excited about this new opportunity to vote.” The Youth Vote campaign, launched in 2014, aimed to lower the voting age to 16 and 17 for local elections in Brattleboro, Vermont. Not only that, they wished to promote youth perspectives, especially in local policy decisions that directly affect them. Brattleboro’s youth community has already been explicitly credited by town and state leaders for its activism and impact on civic life.

Rio Daims joined the Youth Vote campaign in 2018, when she was 16. It is youth-led, with support from Brattleboro Common Sense (BCS) and State Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, who sponsored the bill. The measure was passed by the town in 2019 but faced delays and vetoes at the state level before finally being enacted in 2024.

While some opponents in Vermont argue that 16- and 17-year-olds may lack the maturity to vote responsibly, there is research from adolescent neuroscience and some historical cases, like when the voting age was lowered to 18, that these concerns might be overstated. It is possible that the towns' critics of lowering the voting age were also concerned about the potential political impact of a younger, possibly more progressive, generation participating in elections.

"I thought it was really cool... this whole 'youth empowerment' and 'youth-driven local democracy initiative," said State Senator Ruth Hardy, who championed the bill. Still, adult resistance ran deep. Even after 70% of local voters approved the charter change in a 2021 town vote, Vermont Governor Phil Scott vetoed the bill. Twice.

Opposition was evident. Kurt Daim, who is the father of Rio Daim and played a foundational and supporting role in the Brattleboro youth movement, heard about it firsthand. "The school was resistant… they didn't want us to present at the school," he said. In late 2013, they had contacted Brattleboro Union High School asking if they could promote an essay contest on youth suffrage on a bulletin board. Administrators refused, as “they fussed for a year,” Mr. Daim added. "[There is] a background of resistance in the adult world to youth organising," like "they were just grabbing at straws to prevent us from pushing the youth vote through."

The most common criticism of the movement includes concerns that 16- and 17-year-olds are too immature. It was most explicitly voiced by House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy of Poultney during the legislative debate over Brattleboro's youth voting charter change in June 2023. Although this is a valid concern given that teenage brains are still developing, studies show that by age 16, 'cold cognition' is as developed as in adults. Cold cognition is the mental process or activity that does not involve feelings or emotions, and decision-making in calm situations. This means 16-year-olds are capable of making thoughtful decisions in non-emotional situations. Consequently, they deserve to be trusted with civic responsibilities like voting.

Next, some say that the State Constitution defines a voter as 18 or older who has taken the voting oath. So, opponents would argue that you must be 18 to vote—end of story. However, the Constitution should be the "guarantor of rights," not a limiter. This means municipalities can impose the 18-year-old requirement as a maximum age restriction. In other words, municipalities could allow younger voters, as the Constitution does not explicitly prohibit it. Just like Mr. Daims put it, if the law says you can lend up to $10, it also means you can lend $5.

According to Pew Research Center, about two-thirds of voters ages 18 to 24 (66%) and 25 to 29 (64%) currently associate with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while only about a third in each group lean Republican. So, there could be concerns that allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote would reshape the electoral blocs.

Could there have been a political motivation behind this? Throughout the states, criticisms of lowering the voting age intensified after youth voters turned out in record numbers for Democrats in the 2022 midterms. Sen. Hardy commented,  "that veto was politically motivated... in line with the Republican agenda to limit access to the polls from young people, from immigrants, from people of color, from women."

This trend is not new. In fact, the movement to lower the voting age was historically bipartisan. Republicans, including Sen. Arthur Vandenberg and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, advocated for the 26th Amendment, which allows U.S. citizens eighteen or older to vote. Truth be told, in the 1970s, Republican and Democratic coalitions worked together to lower the voting age to 18. Youth suffrage faces reactionary pushbacks from the same party that once promoted it. What changed?

The push for lowering the voting age to 16 appears not just about age. It is also about voice. It challenges who we consider part of democracy. Youth inclusions potentially threaten to reshape electoral coalitions, and that could scare some lawmakers.