The Berkeley City Council this week approved an ordinance that gives 16 and 17 year olds the ability to vote for school board members in the city this fall. Once implemented, Berkeley and Oakland would be the first California cities with youth voting.
What could be the outcome of youth participation in elections? And should they be able to participate in general local elections, as some cities elsewhere have done? For today’s Question of the Bay, KALW went to UC Berkeley’s campus and asked around: Why should youth be able to vote?
On the UC Berkeley campus, KALW encountered some high school students coming from across the country for a national youth leadership program in engineering, and they all had opinions on their own school districts.
Jayron is a 15-year-old from Florida and is the class president at his school. He says he and his classmates back home would benefit from being able to vote.
“I’m from Florida and we just passed the phone law that’s highly unpopular, you can’t even pull it out or you’ll get in trouble. It’s definitely something where I feel as if students should be involved in things that affect them and others.”
Fifteen-year-old Diego, from Pleasanton, agreed.
“I think that the younger we start, the more comfortable students can become with the government, making big decisions. That’s just a good skill to have overall, especially in the 21st century.”
Nicole, a high school student from Los Angeles, said she agrees with the decision, but has reservations.
“They are a part of the society so I believe that that would be fair, however I believe there should be some that are selected due to their behavior and stuff because i do know some people are irresponsible and not respectful and would take this to an advantage that would lead to the disorganization of the school itself.
Eli Finley is a high school junior from Seattle, Washington.
“I would like to see people my age being able to help people understand our school district like how our school should be like working and how we want it, because of course there’s limits but we should have a little bit of freedom with what’s happening in our schools.”
The Mayor of Berkeley, Jesse Arreguin said that youth participation in elections may not stop at the school board. He also did not rule out the possibility of 16 and 17-year-olds being able to vote in local elections…or even run for the school board themselves.