This ballot measure in a Los Angeles suburb would lower the voting age to 16
When the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, some right-wing Libertarians passionately spoke out against having a national drinking age of 21 — arguing that if 18-year-olds could legally vote, join the military and have a driver’s license, they were old enough to purchase alcohol. Before that law, which enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress, was passed, 18-year-olds could legally drink in a bar in New York City but not across the Hudson River in New Jersey or two hours to the south in Philadelphia — and many Libertarians saw the law as a violation of states’ rights.
Regardless, the general consensus among conservatives and liberals over the years in the U.S. has been that 18 is the best age for voting and joining the military and 21 is more appropriate for legal drinking. But in Culver City, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, Ballot Measure VY would, if it passes on Tuesday, November 8, lower Culver City’s voting age to 16.
The measure is not on the ballot throughout Los Angeles County, only in Culver City — which, like Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, is part of Los Angeles County but not the City of Los Angeles. Culver City has its own city council, police department and mayor (Democrat Daniel Lee). So, if the measure passes, 18 would still be the legal voting age in other parts of Los Angeles County.
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But “if” is the operative word. In an article published by the Los Angeles Times on November 7, reporter Connor Sheets stresses that there has been a lot of debating over the measure among Culver City residents.
One of the measure’s supporters is 17-year-old Ada Meighan-Thiel, a high school senior. Meighan-Thiel told the Times, “Measure VY would expand the local voting age here in Culver City to 16. By really involving people in democracy from a young age, a value of participation will be instilled in them so going forward, they’ll be much more habitual, well-informed voters.”
Opponents of Ballot Measure VY, meanwhile, have come up with a clever anti-VY slogan: “NO on VY ‘Vote 16’ Leave the kids alone!” That slogan obviously borrows from Pink Floyd’s 1979 classic, “Another Brick in the Wall” and its famous lyrics, “Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone.”
Sheets observes, “The rareness of municipalities that allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote underscores how contested the issue is. Supporters of the movement argue that at 16, young people are mature enough to have a say in decisions that affect them. And because they can get a job and pay taxes, they should be able to cast a ballot, they add. Opponents worry that 16-year-olds are too young to fully understand political issues and are too easily influenced to make reasoned electoral choices. Conservatives and even some centrist Democrats also fear that allowing traditionally left-leaning young people to vote would disproportionately help progressive politicians and causes.”
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If VY does pass, it remains to be seen how many Culver City residents who are 16 or 17 would actually start voting. The United States has long had low voter participation rates among the young compared to many other democracies. In 1972, Democratic strategists hoped that the youth vote would give Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern a landslide victory and make Richard Nixon a one-term president; Nixon was reelected by a landslide.
But there is no national law forbidding states, cities or municipalities from lowering their voting age. Rather, most parts of the U.S. have opted to keep their voting ages at 18.
“Years before the high school activists tried to make Vote 16 a reality in Culver City, several towns in Maryland started pushing for the change,” Sheets reports. “Six places in that state allow 16- and 17- year-olds to vote in some elections. The first of them, Takoma Park, approved the measure nearly a decade ago. Takoma Park, like all the Maryland municipalities that approved the practice, is not far from the University of Maryland’s flagship campus in College Park, where much of the research and early advocacy on the issue originated. In 2020, 49.2 percent of San Franciscans voted for a similar ballot measure, falling just short of lowering the voting age for municipal elections in a city of more than 800,000 people.”
Sheets continues, “In 2016, Berkeley became the first municipality in California to approve such a measure for school board elections, followed by its Alameda County neighbor Oakland four years later. But the county has yet to implement the measure, which does not have a mechanism to force its rollout, so 16- and 17-year-olds in both cities are still unable to vote. No such measures have been approved anywhere in the U.S. beyond Alameda County and Maryland.”
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