• Vote16USA supports campaigns to extend voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds in local, state and federal elections.
• California’s charter cities have the power to act independently of the state legislature, including setting the voting age.
• Critics state that 16-year-olds lack financial independence and life experience.

In classrooms across the country, it’s a classic fifth-grade essay prompt: “Should 16-year-olds be allowed to vote?” For 10-year-olds, this question feels hypothetical but becomes real as those same students inch closer to 16. What starts as a classroom debate has, in some cases, led to real policy discussions on lowering the voting age, highlighting shifts in how young people view their role in politics.

A multitude of teenagers have been motivated to speak up and contribute to political processes, driven by the numerous issues that affect their lives, such as funding for education or climate change. Many of these teenagers already drive, work or pay taxes, as well as engage with politics through social media, volunteering or attending rallies. These are all activities that ballot results may affect.

“They’re at the age where they’re very aware of everything that’s going on and get involved,” said Rebecca Sayed, Santa Clara County Democratic Party national team lead. “They want to make an impact.”

While youth activism may have once been dismissed as naive or idealistic, youth-led initiatives, like school climate strikes and congressional testimonies by student school shooting survivors to advocate for gun restrictions, have gained national attention. This shift reflects how students experience issues on the ballot firsthand and are affected by consequences of its decisions, broadening participation in democracy to include everyone influenced by policy decisions. 

Takoma Park, Maryland made history in 2013 as the first American city to allow 16-year-olds to vote in local elections, with neighboring city Hyattsville following in 2015. Although this may have started as isolated change, it has since blossomed into a national movement. Vote16USA, officially launched in December 2015, supports youth-led campaigns to extend voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds in local, state and federal elections.

“Our community, the immediate area in Maryland, became the epicenter of this movement,” said Sam Novey, chief strategist at the University of Maryland Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement. “We look at Vote16 as a modern American suffrage movement. There have been folks in American history who have mobilized and fought to be included, and we often think inclusion is the direction of this work, even though that is often not the case.”

Vote16USA serves as a national hub, providing campaign strategy and communications support to local youth-led efforts. The movement’s strategy recognizes an important legal construct in the process: California charter cities, or municipalities that operate under their own local constitutions, have authority to make certain decisions that act independently of the state legislature, which includes setting the voting age for school board and municipal elections.

In November 2024, Albany became the first California city to pass a ballot measure lowering the voting age to 16 for all city elections, with 64% of voters in favor. Sunnyvale, Cupertino and San José are all charter cities that could potentially make this change.

“The fact that high school students don’t vote doesn’t mean that they don’t feel the impact,” FUHSD Board Member Pat Carpio-Aguilar said. “FUHSD offers an array of AP level classes, and that requires a lot of thought, research and synthesizing. If you can do something as demanding as AP United States History, AP Literature and all these other courses, you are way ahead of the game.”

The Albany campaign used grassroots organizing to engage with voters. Students at Albany High School became prominent representatives of the campaign, presenting directly to the City Council, speaking at community meetings and canvassing door-to-door. Recently, Vote16USA hosted a national convention at the University of California, Los Angeles, bringing together hundreds of youth organizers to strategize and coordinate for a 2026 effort.

“Young people are the heartbeat of the movement,” Vote16USA executive director LaJuan Allen said. “I’ve seen 16- and 17-year-olds testify before city councils, before state legislatures, and I’ve seen elected officials who are in decision-making halls shift their opinion on this issue based on testimony given by young people.”

The movement has expanded throughout the South Bay. In August 2025, the Santa Clara County Democratic Party voted to support Vote16 Palo Alto, an affiliate of Vote16USA and a youth-led effort to lower the voting age to 16 in Palo Alto for municipal elections.

“I think the most rewarding thing is seeing our classmates supporting it and we think that it’s amazing because that means that people are interested in it,” said Rayla Chen, Gunn High School senior and Vote16 Palo Alto codirector. “But we’re also really happy to see that adults also care for us. A lot of adults actually trust us more than other adults, which is very surprising, but I think that just goes to show how much emotional maturity we all have.”

The South Bay has long been a center for youth civic engagement. Local elected officials frequently promote youth participation through means like youth advisory councils and civic engagement events with youth advocacy organizations. Moreover, groups like the California High School Democrats of America work directly with California assemblymembers to host civic engagement speaker series and develop legislation to better serve students.

“People tend to discredit youth when it comes to being able to think about current events critically and why they’re happening,” sophomore and CAHSD political director Anika Khanna said. “But I think that a lot of youth tend to be able to analyze things and connect it back to their history classes, English classes and things they learn in school.”

Arguments against lowering the voting age often center around concerns about maturity, parental influence and life experience. Critics note that most 16-year-olds lack financial independence, such as paying income taxes or managing major expenses. Similar arguments were raised when the national voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1971 through the 26th Amendment, which passed with bipartisan support.

“Your political opinion is essentially a mix of influence with the people you surround yourself with,” Chen said. “That’s the reason why we voice our political opinion. To say that one can or cannot be swayed is a complete myth, because everyone’s political opinion is impacted by the people around us.”

These concerns often support a more targeted approach by limiting youth voting to school board elections where students have more direct stakes. Almost all 16-year-olds have firsthand experience with school resource allocation and curriculum. Yet citywide decisions about public transportation or park funding also shape their daily lives.

“With voting comes responsibility, and if you’re not at the age where you’re expected to be responsible for your own food and shelter, then can you be legally allowed to vote?” Sayed said. “There’s a lot of things we do that we don’t let people do until they’re 21 years old in this country, and this seems like they’re striking too far the other way.”

Public support for lowering the voting age remains limited, but in places like Scotland, it rose to 50% after 16-year-olds voted for the first time. However, studies also showed that young voters in Scotland were more influenced by emotions than older voters. 

As new proposals emerge in city and state legislatures, discussions around Vote16 continue to develop. Understanding these trends can help define how the next generation of voters might be involved in shaping democracy.

“The last 10 years of political life in the United States have shown that a really wide range of outcomes is possible,” Novey said. “These suffrage movements are long journeys. Each little win helps build the power and capacity they need to get to the next level.”