Teens tell state senators: Let us vote
Added 5-7-04
Youth won a round against experience Wednesday as a troupe of teenagers as young as 14 demanded the right to vote from a skeptical panel of state senators. After enduring a grilling from one of the Capitol's more grizzled veterans, teens looking for a voice in the political process walked away with an early victory when the Senate Elections Committee endorsed a plan to give millions of 14-, 15-, 16- and 17-year-old Californians the right to vote. Click for More

Bill To Lower Voting Age To 14 Passes Senate Committee
Added 5-7-04
A bill designed to get youth more involved in the elections process passed the state Senate Committee on Elections and Reappointment on Wednesday. SB 1606 by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, would lower the state's legal voting age to 14. The catch is that it would take four 14 or 15 year olds to make up a whole vote. Click for More

Teenage voting rights proposed
Added 5-7-04
Being 14, an awkward, largely uncelebrated time that can seem to last for an eternity rather than a year, took a small step toward relevance in the Capitol on Wednesday. After earnest testimony by teenagers and their youthful supporters, the Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee passed legislation that would lower the state's legal voting age to 14. Click for More

Californians consider granting 14-year-olds the right to vote
Added 4-28-04
On Super Tuesday last month, Robert Reynolds headed for the polls at the local senior center, where he politely requested a ballot from a graying, middle-aged woman. She glanced at his youthful face, and then brusquely turned him away. Click for More

NYRA Strives to Lower Voting Age
Added 4-22-04
The National Youth Rights Association is an organization that deals with age discrimination in areas of voting, drinking, driving, curfews and other economic matters. The youth’s rights movement began in the 1960s and 1970s and many organizations formed over the last 20 years. Click for More

City High students try to change area voting age
Added 4-13-04
As students in several states are looking to lower the voting age, a movement in a City High government class aims to give 17-year-olds the right to vote in Iowa City School District elections. The Voting Permit project is a long-term endeavor started about two years ago in Jeanine Redlinger's state and local government class. Click for More

Should voting age fall to 16?
Added 4-9-04
High school junior Lindsay Holbrook is brokenhearted. Not over a boy - but over the fact that, at 17, she will not be allowed to vote for president this November. And the Walled Lake, Mich., teen aims to do something about that. Holbrook is part of a movement to lower the voting age. Click for More

EU may reduce voting age to 16, meeting told
Added 4-8-04
Consideration is to be given by the European Union to reducing the voting age to 16 across the EU, following a conference of youth ministers and youth organisations at Dromoland Castle, Co Clare. Click for More

NH Teen Arrested for Voting Illegally
Added 4-2-04
A week after hosting a pro-Bush house party aimed at getting young voters to the polls, a local teen Republican activist was arrested for voting illegally. Click for More

Labour to back votes at 16 in UK
Added 3-24-04
Labour is backing a reduction in voting age to 16 in an attempt to reconnect young people with the political system. The party's policy forum agreed at the weekend that there was "a strong case" for cutting the voting age to 16. Until now, Labour has been neutral on the issue. Click for More

Warioba: Reduce voting age to 16 in Tanzania
Added 3-24-04
Former Prime Minister Justice Joseph Warioba has proposed that the age for eligible voters should now be reduced to 16 years instead of 18. Click for More

Let's give all teens the right to vote
Added 2-26-04
We're knee-deep in the election season, with the California primary March 2 and the presidential campaign shifting into full gear. It's all about the voter. At least until the day after the election. Click for More

African teens split over lower voting age
Added 1-29-04
The opposition coalition in Tanzania has proposed the change in the law in that country, arguing that with falling life expectancy young people should have more of a say. Click for More

Welsh MPs urge drop in voting age
Added 1-29-04
Welsh MPs have joined calls for the Government to lower the voting age to 16 in a bid to give youngsters a voice in mainstream politics and boost turnout at the polls. Click for More

Blair floats idea of giving 16-year-olds right to vote
Added 12-9-03
THE voting age may be lowered to 16 in a ground-breaking move the government believes would re-engage young people in politics. Tony Blair ordered a senior political ally to float the idea at the weekend to gauge how popular it would be. The direct involvement of the Prime Minister is a sign of how seriously the proposal is being taken. Click for More

Vote At 16 in UK
Added 11-2-03
Sixteen-year-olds will get the vote under a Labour scheme to boost flagging turnouts at elections. The move to lower the voting age from 18 has mounting support among Ministers and MPs, and Education Secretary Charles Clarke is said to be sympathetic to the change. Click for More

County Wants Congress to Lower Voting Age
Added 10-23-03
Allegheny County Council wants Congress to take a look at lowering the voting age to 17. The nonbinding motion passed 8-5 Tuesday night and was sponsored by Democratic Councilman Bill Robinson, who represents Pittsburgh's Hill District. Click for More

Teenage Mayor swims against tide of voter apathy
Added 9-28-03
Even though he's barely old enough to vote, Christopher Portman has become one of America's youngest mayors. But his political aspirations don't end there. Click for More

Kids to 'vote' with parents
Added 9-27-03
Last November, thousands of unregistered Florida voters went to the polls, cast paper ballots and chose Democrat Bill McBride for governor. There was no hue and cry, no outrage. In fact, election officials in the three counties where it happened considered the unofficial election a good thing: Every ballot cast was cast by a child, each one a voter in waiting. Click for More

'No' to voting at 16 but 'Yes' to councillor at 18
Added 9-14-03
Teenage hopes for a voting age of 16 have taken a step back after a district council committee rejected the idea. But members voted in favour of lowering the age that a person can stand for a local authority from 21 to 18. Click for More

Germany Ponders "Family Vote"
Added 9-14-03
In an attempt to pass some of the responsibility of Germany's political future to those who will have to face it, a plan to give children the vote has been proposed and supported by a number of politicians. Click for More

Baltimore Law Lets 16-Year-Olds Vote
Added 9-14-03
In the eyes of the law, Nikina Hill won't be an adult until March. She won't even be eligible for a full Maryland driver's license until later this fall. And in virtually any election anywhere in the country, Hill, 17, would be turned away from the voting booth because she is too young. Click for More

Let’s give kids the right to vote
Added 9-5-03
Rockford Mayor Doug Scott, for all his charms and talents, doesn’t deserve to be known as “the people’s choice.” I offer this observation not as a slam against Scott but as a statement of statistical fact. He was elected in April 2001 by barely 17 percent of the city’s registered voters. Click for More

Germany debates babies at ballot box plan
Added 9-2-03
New-born babies in Germany are to be given the vote if plans disclosed by an influential group of German MPs get the go-ahead. Parents will be trusted with their children’s votes until they are of "an able age" under the plans, but families with more children will have more votes. Click for More

Democrat seeks to lower voting age
Added 8-27-03
A city lawmaker says she will help 16-year-olds secure the right to vote, a plan that would make the teens the youngest voters in the nation and increase the number of registered voters in the Democratic Party. Click for More

Children Want Voting Age Lowered
Added 8-14-03
The newly-established Children's Parliament began sitting yesterday, with heated debate on whether the voting age should be lowered to at least 15 years. Click for More

Young people's interest in UK politics may pay off with vote for 16-year-olds
Added 7-27-03
CAMPAIGNERS welcomed the launch of a public consultation on lowering the minimum voting age to 16 yesterday as a chance to correct "one of the major aberrations" in the electoral process. Click for More

Panel seeks to lower voting age to 19 in S. Korea
Added 7-27-03
The state-run election watchdog yesterday announced that it will push to lower the voting age from the current age of 20 to 19 to boost young people's participation in the voting process. Click for More

17 year old Israelis go to the polls
Added 6-9-03
For the first time, 17 year old Israelis will be going to the polls today in special elections for mayors of some of the country's largest towns and cities. Click for More

Rocking the vote
Added 6-3-03
Miranda Rosenberg's phone has been ringing a lot lately. Her mother answers when Rosenberg is in school. "Are you calling to talk to Miranda about the Baltimore election?" she asks. Click for More

Student Seeks to Make a Difference
Added 6-3-03
Tia M. Young, a junior at Suitland High School, has been elected by her fellow student leaders to serve a one-year term on the Prince George's County Board of Education. Click for More

Quirk gives Baltimore 16-year-olds the vote
Added 5-25-03
Sixteen-year-old Andrew Brown smiles at the thought: He cannot legally buy cigarettes or drink a beer, but come September, he will be able to vote for mayor in the city's primary. Click for More

In Baltimore, some get to vote at age 16
Added 5-11-03
Many of Baltimore's 16-year-olds will be eligible to vote in September's primary - an anomaly in election history, officials say. The unusually long, 14-month gap between the Sept. 9 primary and next year's general election created this oddity Click for More

Referendum on voting age held off for a year
Added 4-29-03
A statewide referendum on whether to lower Maine's voting age from 18 to 17 won't take place until next year at the earliest. A legislative panel has reconsidered its recent 11-2 vote in favor of extending voting rights to all 17-year-olds. Click for More

Plea to give 16 year olds the vote
Added 4-23-03
A Wimbledon teenager helped City Hall chiefs launch Mayor Ken Livingstone's plans for London's under-18s with a plea to give 16-year-olds the vote. Zara Todd, 17, lined up on the podium with deputy mayor Nicky Gavron to kick-start public consultation on the Draft Children and Young People's Strategy. Click for More

Youths appealing ruling that keeps voting age at 18
Added 4-23-03
Two teens are appealing a court decision which denied their application to give voting privileges to 16 and 17 year-olds. Click for More

Fifteen-Year-Old Taxpayer Tries to Change Law in Florida
Added 4-23-03
Miranda Rosenberg is 15 years old and has recently filed her 2002 income tax return. She worked part-time last year while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average at Suncoast High School in Riviera Beach, Florida. Paying income taxes is more than just an annual obligation to Ms. Rosenberg; she sees this event as an opportunity to change the law. Click for More

Teenager on a campaign to lower voting age in state
Added 4-19-03
Miranda Rosenberg rushed through her speech to Broward County Democrats for the best reason a high school sophomore can have: She has a Spanish exam today and she had to study. The Palm Beach County 15-year-old is perhaps the youngest political activist ever to speak to the toughened core of the Democratic Party. Click for More

Panel OKs lowering voting age in Maine
Added 3-26-03
A legislative committee's majority voted Tuesday in favor of dropping Maine's voting age by a year so 17-year-olds can cast ballots, leaving the sponsor pleasantly surprised. Click for More

Teen leads drive to vote at 16
Added 3-26-03
Yes, the joke's been made. "In Palm Beach County, Florida, a teenager is petitioning to lower the voting age to 16," quipped The Tonight Show's Jay Leno recently. "Just what they need down there -- more incompetent voters." Click for More

Bill seeks amendment to drop state minimum voting age
Added 3-26-03
A legislative committee Tuesday afternoon took testimony on a bill seeking to lower Maine's minimum voting age by a year to 17. Click for More

MP's bill would allow mock vote for teens
Added 3-17-03
A Liberal MP has drafted a private member's bill that would make it legal for teenagers aged 16 and 17 to cast mock ballots in the next federal election. Click for More

Jerusalem considers lowering voting age to 17
Added 3-17-03
Interior Minister Avraham Poraz decided yesterday that city hall elections for Jerusalem, Haifa and Or Akiva, whose mayors became members of the Knesset, will be held on June 3. Poraz also proposes to lower the voting age to 17, allowing anyone who reaches that age by June 3 to cast a ballot for mayor. Click for More

Lawmaker proposes lowering legal voting age
Added 2-24-03
Could a license to drive also be a license to vote? Rep. Ron Wilson (D-Houston) thinks it should be. Wilson has sponsored House Bill 482, a constitutional amendment that could lower the voting age in Texas from 18 to 16. Click for More

For Sweet 16 gift, Boca girl wants the right to vote
Added 2-22-03
Forget a video cell phone, Jay-Z's latest CD or even a driver's license. What Miranda Rosenberg really wants for her 16th birthday is the right to vote. "Why not?" asks the sophomore honor student at Suncoast High School in Riviera Beach. "I work and pay taxes, but I don't get a voice about how that money is spent. It's not fair." Click for More

Lower Voting Age Unlikely
Added 2-22-03
Reality check: The notion of giving Florida's 16-year-olds the right to vote isn't going to fly. Too much immature, irresponsible and sometimes criminal behavior by some teens taints how many grown-ups view all teens, including those who might handle the voting privilege properly. Click for More

Ministers contemplate cut in voting age to 16
Added 2-22-03
A radical plan to cut the voting age to 16 is being considered by the Government after Tony Blair ordered ministers to look at all methods of increasing turnout in elections. The idea has resurfaced as a way of countering disaffection with politics among the young and building on the headway being made by citizenship lessons in schools. Click for More

Morocco Lowers Voting Age
Added 2-18-03
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has announced that the voting age will be lowered from 20 to 18. This is being seen an attempt to interest the younger generation in politics and thwart the rise of radical Islamist groups. Click for More

Assembly foils try to lower voting age
Added 2-13-03
The Anchorage Assembly fell one vote short of asking voters if they want to change the municipal charter and lower the voting age in city elections from 18 years to 16. But the Assembly on Tuesday did place a nonbinding version of the question on the April 1 ballot. Click for More

Give babies a vote, says think-tank
Added 2-7-03
Parents should be given extra votes to cast on behalf of their children and the voting age should be lowered to 14, says a leading think-tank. A new report from Demos says children are getting a bigger say in family life but are becoming "invisible citizens" in the public sphere. Click for More