Newark is taking a big step toward getting its young people involved in government. The city council voted this week to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in school board elections. Johnathon Alston … a teacher at Science Park High School … was one of many who spoke before the vote was taken. He reminded everyone of the critical role young people played a few years ago in returning Newark schools to local control:
"Those were high school students who organized demonstrations that were so big they shut down the highway to the airport. They helped us get local control back. If students can help get local control back you have to help them have the vote right now."
The City Council voted 9-0 to let 16 and 17 year olds vote in school board elections … which will be held in April. Before the vote Rashawn Davis … head of the Andrew Goodman Foundation … which battles voter suppression … spoke of the importance of getting young people involved:
"We’re talking about enfranchising thousands of new voters with a pen stroke. It’s a powerful step that this body should be proud of. It fundamentally changes the nature and scope of these elections, which have no doubt suffered from abysmal participation in the past."
Councilman Patrick Council said young people in the city are already politically active:
"It’s young people that walk with many of us, that canvass neighborhoods, that knock on doors, that participate in all kind of things."
Newark is now the largest municipality in the US to expand voting rights to younger people since 1971, when the voting age was lowered to 18 nationwide.
Last year, only about 3 percent of Newark’s registered voters voted in the school board elections.
