A bill that proposes giving 14- and 16-year-olds partial voting
rights has generated a debate as to whether teens so young have the
maturity required to vote responsibly and independently.
The bill, proposed by state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa
Clara) would let children as young as 14 vote in California. Votes
by 14- and 15-year-olds would count as a quarter of a vote, and
votes cast by 16- and 17-year-olds count as half a vote.
Vasconcellos proposed the bill in hope of increasing voter turnout
by encouraging regular voting from a young age.
“Many people don’t come from families that vote, so
they never get started. An advantage of starting to vote while
still in high school is that students can motivate each other to
vote,” said Terri Mosqueda, a legislative aid for
Vasconcellos.
She added the senator, due to the low voter turnout of 18- to
25-year-olds, “wants to validate the opinion and voices of
youth and counteract youth disengagement by affording them the
privilege of voting.”
Although most 14-year-olds are not even aware of the bill, a
debate over whether children can make rational decisions on
politics and whether they would be too easily deceived by
politicians has been brewing in the California Legislature and
among youth political groups.
“We don’t let children enter into contracts because
they are easy to defraud,” said Assemblyman Ray Haynes
(R-Murrieta), who added politicians are much better liars than
businessman.
“There is a reason why children are called children. They
lack the maturity and judgment that adults have,” Haynes
said.
Haynes added he would rather see children get the power to enter
into contracts than for them to be able to vote. Haynes also said
if children cannot spend their own money without asking their
parents first, then they should not be able to decide how to spend
California’s money.
“Allowing them to vote gives them the ability to mess up
my life,” he said.
But youth political rights groups and proponents of the bill
argue teens could make political decisions just as well as
adults.
Alex Koroknay-Palicz, president of the National Youth Rights
Association, has been working with Vasconcellos on the bill. He
said youths could vote just as well as adults, responding to
concerns children would just vote for their favorite celebrities by
saying adults voted Arnold Schwarzenegger into office.
Koroknay-Palicz called the refusal to let teens vote ageism,
likening it to sexism and racism. He compared the idea of letting
the votes of parents represent their children to letting the vote
of husbands represent their wives.
“Any suggestion that youths are incompetent is made by
people that really don’t know the youth,”
Koroknay-Palicz said.
Koroknay-Palicz added young voters could become more educated by
taking voter education classes in high school.
Though the bill does not include any education programs for the
youth, Mosqueda said the partial voting system functions as a kind
of apprenticeship for voters. She added giving children partial
votes instead of full votes was partly a strategic move to get more
support for the bill.
The proposal requires two-thirds approval by the state
Legislature to appear on the November ballot for voter
approval.