Sixteen-year-old Tiffany Missembe doesn’t want to cast her ballot in two years when she’s of legal age to vote. She wants to cast it today, age 16, when movements like March for Our Lives have positioned young people as both politically active and informed.
That’s why Missembe joined Vote16DC, a coalition of youth and adults fighting to extend voting rights to those 16 and older in Washington D.C. through the “Youth Vote Amendment Act of 2015.”
In 2015, D.C. Councilman Charles Allen introduced “The Youth Vote Amendment Act of 2018,” which will lower the voting age in local and federal elections to 16, but it failed to move through D.C. Council. Today, however, momentum from March for Our Lives and other activism groups supercharged by social media has garnered the initiative more than a passing glance.
In fact, Takoma Park, Maryland, just over the border from Washington D.C., became the first jurisdiction in the country to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in 2013. When Takoma Park first extended the vote to 16-year-olds, their turnout was four times that of voters 18 and above.
The movement for the youth vote in D.C. is being led by a coalition of high school students across the city. A number of them testified at a public hearing on Wednesday, June 27th led by Councilman Allen.
Student producers/videographers/editors include: Xavier Dominguez of Las Cruces High School in New Mexico, Savannah Burrows of West Ranch High School in California, Elijah Magana of Etiwanda High School in California, and Linda Olvera-Jones of Dalton Middle School in Georgia. Mentoring provided by Kristy Choi from PBS NewsHour and Lisa Wilk from WHYY.
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