North Carolina: New North Carolina law could discourage participation by young voters | The Voter Update

Gov. Pat McCrory signed a sweeping elections overhaul bill on Aug. 12, and on Sept. 1 one of the first provisions of that new law will go into effect. Beginning on that day, 16- and 17-year-olds will no longer be allowed to pre-register to vote. North Carolina implemented voter pre-registration in 2010 after being passed by the General Assembly with broad, bipartisan support. Through the program, 16- and 17-year-olds could “pre-register” to vote, which didn’t lower the voting age but meant these young people would be automatically added to the voter rolls when they turned 18. Since many teens are going to the DMV to get a driver’s license during this time, it was convenient to offer them the opportunity to pre-register to vote as well. Students are also being taught civics in high school at this age, which seemed like an appropriate time to translate the abstracts of lesson plans into a real-world activity like pre-registering to vote. In the end, the goal was to encourage teens to get involved in the voting process at an early age and hopefully instill in them an interest and passion for civic engagement.

Maryland: In Takoma Park, starting the voting habit early | Baltimore Sun

Last week, the Takoma Park City Council voted 6-1 to change its charter to become the first city in America to lower the voting age to 16. While we are the first city to adopt this policy, we have little doubt that others will follow. Maryland already has been a national leader in extending voting rights to younger voters when it opened its primaries years ago to 17-year-olds. That practice has spread to more than 20 states, and the case for a lower voting age in local elections is similarly strong. The context for action was an accompanying measure backing an affirmative right to vote in the Constitution and local actions in support of suffrage. A task force will address why — like many cities, including Baltimore — Takoma Park has local election turnout rates below 20 percent, with large disparities based on age and neighborhood. The city will also establish Election Day voter registration and extend voting rights to more people with past felony convictions, and may adopt Minnesota’s policy of ensuring that candidates have access to apartment buildings to talk with residents.

Maryland: Takoma Park might not be last city to grant teens right to vote | Gazette.Net

When Takoma Park’s next election day arrives in November, the lines of voters ready to cast their ballots for the City Council will include a new set of voters making history. During its Monday meeting, the Takoma Park City Council passed a series of city charter amendments regarding its voting and election laws, including one allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in city elections. With Monday’s vote, Takoma Park became the first city in the United States to lower its voting age — which was previously 18 — to 16. Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, executive director for the political advocacy organization Common Cause Maryland, said the city’s decision marks “a really important step forward” and “a perfect way to get the youth vote mobilized.”

Maryland: Maryland teens lead national movement to lower voting age | Washington Times

A national movement to grant more teens the right to vote scored its first victory this week with the passage of legislation in Takoma Park, to lower the voting age in municipal elections to 16. But momentum continued Wednesday as advocates in Massachusetts spoke at the State House in favor of allowing 17-year-olds to vote. Activists have made a number of attempts across the country in recent years to grant more teens access to the polls. They point to the change in Takoma Park as a potential springboard for movements elsewhere. “This is, in legislation terms, the first real big step,” said Jeffrey Nadel, president of the D.C.-based National Youth Rights Association, which lobbied for the legislation in Takoma Park. “We’re excited that this will be the spark that lights the fuse for change across the country.”

Maryland: Takoma Park Says 16 Is Old Enough To Vote | NPR

If you’re old enough to drive, are you old enough to vote? You soon will be if you live in Takoma Park, Md. The famously progressive suburb of Washington has just extended voting rights in municipal elections to 16- and 17-year-olds. Takoma Park was the first city in the country to take such a step, but its action is part of a larger trend toward letting people vote earlier. “We’re not the first community to talk about the idea and I doubt we’ll be the last to adopt it,” says city council member Tim Male, a cosponsor of the measure, which passed on Monday. The Massachusetts Senate on Wednesday held a hearing on the question of allowing municipalities to extend the franchise to citizens younger than 18, as the Lowell city council has twice attempted to do.

Maryland: Takoma Park lowers voting age to 16 | WJLA.com

All councilmembers and the mayor are up for re-election in Takoma Park, and they’ll now have to answer to a new constituency. “It’s a small place and we’re trying to make it possible for more people to part of our city government,” says Councilman Tim Male. Councilman Male is one of six councilmembers who voted for the measure that passed, allowing 16 and 17 year olds, along with convicted felons who have served their time, to vote in city elections beginning this November.

Argentina: Argentina proposes giving noncitizens and 16-year-olds voting rights in national elections | The Washington Post

Argentina is rethinking what it means to be a citizen, proposing radical changes that would have both foreigners and 16-year-olds vote to determine who should run the country. President Cristina Fernandez’s legislative powerbrokers say the proposed electoral laws will enhance democracy and challenge the world to treat voting as a universal human right. Opponents call it a naked attempt to prolong the power of a decade-old government that has showered public money on migrants and young people. With approval likely in a Congress controlled by the president’s allies, the laws would expand Argentina’s electorate by 3 million voters, or roughly 10 percent, and make it among the world’s most permissive countries in terms of voting rights, allowing foreigners with two years of permanent residency to cast ballots.

Malta: Greens want voting rights extended to 16-year-olds | maltatoday.com.mt

Alternattiva Demokratika Zaghzagh (ADZ) said it strongly believes that the right to vote in all elections should be extended to all citizens above the age of 16. “While both PN and PL keep using youth as a backdrop, they should take a clear stand on this basic democratic issue, whether to allow 16 year olds to vote in local, European and general elections,” ADZ said. ADZ spokesperson Robert Callus said: “Different people mature at different ages. There are those who vote according to the favour they have received or on the basis of tradition rather than according to the needs of the country or ideology. What can be more immature than that? Yet, these people have the right to vote, and rightly so.”

Hawaii: Federal Lawsuit Filed Friday Challenges 2012 Reapportionment Plan | Hawaii Reporter

The State of Hawaii has a long history of refusing to count military personnel and their families for purposes of reapportioning the Hawaii State Legislature. A lawsuit filed today asks a three-judge federal court to enforce the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and require the State to count all residents of Hawaii. The 2010 U.S. Census reported 1,360,301 residents as the total resident population of Hawaii. The Census includes military personnel, military families and students as residents of Hawaii. It also counts minors, non-citizens, and incarcerated felons. In 1965, in Burns v. Richardson, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Hawaii’s use of its count of registered voters as the population basis for apportionment, a population base which effectively excluded low-registration groups such as military personnel and students, many of whom were below the pre-26th Amendment voting age of 21. Contrary to popular opinion, the Burns case does not permit the State to ignore military personnel and their families. The Court allowed counting only registered voters because there was no evidence doing so would result in apportionment substantially different from that which would have resulted if the State had simply counted everyone.

Malaysia: Road Map For Automatic Voter Registration Needed – Saifuddin | Bernama

A road map needs to be instituted to enable Malaysians reaching the age of 21 to be automatically registered as voters, said Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah. He said that he was not only in favour of this but also reducing the voting age to 18.

“Though these are not possible for the next general election, nevertheless, a road map needs to be in place to realise these matters.

“To have a great decracy, we need as many people as possible to come out and vote. To achieve this, we must make it easier for the people to do so (vote),” he said at the Electoral Reform and Purification of Democracy Forum organised by the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) and the Abim Lawyers Group (GPA) at Kolej Dar Al-Hikmah here today.

Editorials: Happy 26th Amendment Day! Enjoy It While It Lasts | Campus Progress

July 1, 1971 saw the 26th amendment, which reduced the minimum voting age from 21 to 18, and millions of college-age Americans were given the right to vote.

40 years later, lawmakers are attacking this Constitutional right by introducing so-called voter ID bills. These bills require voters to show specific types of photo identification at the polls, a requirement that 18 percent of young people in the United States currently do not meet.

Many laws also limit the use of student ID cards as acceptable forms of identification. The student activism that led to the passage of the 26th Amendment should inspire and direct student activism today to protect our rights.

National: 26th Amendment and #WhyUVote | Overseas Vote Foundation

Forty years ago – on the 1st of July 1971 – the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, and forever changing the face of the American electorate.

Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) honors this historical milestone and salutes America’s young people by engaging U.S. voters around the world in a dialogue about “why you vote” – in 140 characters or less.

Due to popular demand, we’ve decided to extend this event throughout the 4th of July weekend!

Editorials: Bob Hall: Voter ID requirement a step backward | FayObserver.com

Forty years ago this month, North Carolina played a pivotal role in expanding voting rights for American citizens. On July 1, 1971, our General Assembly became the final state legislature needed to ratify the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

A few days later, at a signing ceremony for the amendment, President Richard Nixon looked around the room of assembled young people and said, “America’s new voters, America’s young generation, will provide what America needs as we approach our 200th birthday – not just strength and not just wealth, but the Spirit of ’76, a spirit of moral courage, a spirit of high idealism in which we believe … that the American dream can never be fulfilled until every American has an equal chance to fulfill it in his own life.”

Thousands of miles away, 18-year-old Americans were fighting and dying in Vietnam. The cry of “old enough to fight, old enough to vote” had grown louder through the 1960s, and Congress finally proposed the 26th Amendment in March 1971. It sped through state legislatures, gaining the necessary ratification of three-fourth of the states with our General Assembly’s historic vote.

Later this month, the General Assembly will consider several bills with a far different purpose. They aim to restrict, rather than expand, opportunities for qualified voters.

Editorials: Voters should be outraged at Florida Legislature | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Over the past few months, the world’s attention has been focused on the struggle among Muslim states in the Middle East and North Africa toward the first, difficult steps of political freedom. Unfortunately for them, the road to democracy will be difficult at best, and we may not like the results. Americans understand this, as our own path to voting rights for all was long and bloody.

When the nation was founded, not everyone was able to vote, as religious clauses and property requirements limited full enfranchisement. The rights and privileges of citizenship were limited to a few land-owning, white males.

But, in the 1850s, provisions requiring citizens to own property and pay taxes in order to vote were eliminated. Not long after the end of the Civil War, black men were extended the right to vote with the 15th Amendment. Women would have to wait another half-century until the 19th Amendment in 1920 assured their right to vote.

Taiwan: Legislators mull lowering voting age in Taiwan | Taipei Times

As presidential candidates increase their efforts to canvass support from first-time voters, lawmakers from across party lines are mulling whether to amend the law to lower the legal voting age to 18 years. However, some academics cast doubt on the idea, saying that lowering the legal voting age would require a constitutional amendment.