NYC Students: Let Us Vote At 17

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — New York City high schoolers would be able to vote for mayor tomorrow if a Brooklyn state assemblyman had his way. Assemblyman Robert Carroll wants to lower the voting age to 17 from 18 for state and local elections in an effort to get teens more engaged in politics.

The Park Slope Democrat’s Young Voter Act, introduced in March, would also give high school students eight hours of civics education and put a voter registration form in their hands before they turn 17.

The bill would help make voting a habit for young people, who are unlikely to become regular voters if they don’t cast a ballot before they turn 25, Carroll said at a Monday news conference in front of the city Board of Elections’ Financial District headquarters.

“We teach them how to drive cars, we teach them how to take the SAT,” Carroll said, flanked by more than a dozen high schoolers from seven schools around the city. “We should teach them how to be active citizens and how to vote.”

If Carroll’s bill is passed, New York would become the first state allow teens to vote before they hit the federal voting age of 18. Takoma Park, Maryland and Berkeley, California allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in some local elections.

Carroll said it’s an attempt to rejuvenate New York’s anemic showing at the polls — the state ranked 41st in the nation for turnout in last year’s presidential election. Last month’s mayoral primary drew only about 15 percent of registered Democrats, who dominate the city’s voter rolls.

“Through the Young Voter Act we can not only engage young people to engage in local democracy as well as the national political scene, but we can encourage them to inspire their family members, their friends and those around them to turn out as well,” said Ilana Cohen of Park Slope, a 17-year-old senior at Beacon High School.

Several students, led by the Youth Progressive Policy Group, came to Albany this last spring to lobby for Carroll’s bill.

But it faces big political obstacles. It hasn’t made it out of an Assembly committee and doesn’t have a Republican sponsor in the state Senate, where the GOP has control.

It’s uncertain whether the law would be in place for next year’s gubernatorial election if it does pass this spring, Carroll said.

Cohen said she wishes she could vote in tomorrow’s city elections. She’s worked on Carroll’s campaigns and said most of her friends are just as politically engaged.

“We have a very informed opinion on everything that’s going on, and we should be able to have more input in our government and in the system that runs the public schools we attend,” Cohen said.

(Lead image: Ilana Cohen speaks at a Monday news conference in front of the city Board of Elections headquarters in the Financial District. Photo by Noah Manskar)