Empowering the Future: Extending Voting Rights to 16 & 17-Year-Olds in School Board Elections

East Brunswick School Board Elections are currently faced with a lack of voter participation, with the last school board election gaining only a 24.53% voter turnout rate. Allowing 16 & 17 year olds to vote helps curtail these issues and lead to increased interest and participation into the affairs of our school board. Previous examples of laws enfranchising 16 & 17 year olds has showed that this age group is 4 times as likely to participate in elections.

Allowing 16 & 17 year olds to participate in school board elections creates life-long habits of voting, which helps contribute to the issue of civic apathy that our nation has continued to face. Research has suggested that someone who participates in one election is 25% more likely to participate in the next one. A trickle-up relationship also exists- showing that parents are more likely to participate politically when their children are further increasing voter turnout.

16 & 17 year olds are also just as capable of responsibly participating in elections as their 18+ counterparts. Studies demonstrate that 16 & 17 year olds have higher levels of civic knowledge than their mid 20-year-old counterparts. Voting also falls under the category of “cold cognition” - a type of decision making that matures by age 16 and does not increase from there.