Let 16-Year-Olds Vote, Forest Hills Lawmaker Urges Congress

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS -- With primary elections for several Queens districts fast approaching, one local lawmaker is pushing for a national change that would let more young people into the polls.

Queens Congresswoman Grace Meng posed a bill to lower the country's voting age from 18 to 16 years old earlier this month to the U.S. House of Representatives. Meng represents Forest Hills, Kew Gardens and several other central and northeast Queens neighborhoods in New York's sixth congressional district.

"I am a firm believer that we should empower our young people, and that includes extending the right to vote for 16- and 17-year-olds," Meng said.

The bill seeks to edit the U.S. Constitution by replacing its 26th amendment - which guarantees citizens 18 and older the right to vote - with a new one extending that right to 16- and 17-year-olds. The original amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the U.S. voting age from 21 to 18, where it has stayed since.

Meng noted by age 16, Americans can legally work, pay federal taxes on their earnings, drive cars and be tried as adults for crimes, and it was "only fair to allow them the right to vote as well."

“Voting is a serious responsibly, but I believe that our youth are mature enough at these ages to responsibly cast a ballot," she said.

She pointed to waves of student-led activism seen across the country over the last year, in which young people have rallied for policy change on everything from gun safety to climate change to healthcare.

"They deserve to have their voices heard at the ballot box, and to have a say in the change for which they’re vigorously advocating," Meng said. "It’s clear to me that they should be allowed to vote.”

Cities in more than a dozen states and Washington D.C. can already legally lower their voting age for local elections through charter amendments, and several of them have, Meng said. Takoma Park, Maryland became the first city in America to lower the voting age for local elections to 16. In Hyattsville, Maryland, 16- and 17-year-old voters are hitting the polls nearly four times as often as their older peers.

But lowering the entire country's voting age would still be a monuments task. Constitutional amendments must be voted in by at least two-thirds of the House and Senate and ratified by three-fourths of the nation's state legislature.

Meng's amendment has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it's awaiting further action. If it does pass, the voting age would be lowered for federal, state and local elections.

Lead photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images