The Change Mariner

Is Your 14 Year-Old Ready to Vote?

San Jose Mercury News:

Sen. John Vasconcellos, in an unusual and likely quixotic bid to boost participation at the polls, introduced a bill Monday to allow Californians as young as 14 to vote.

The proposal, which would grant people ages 16 and 17 a half-vote and those who are 14 and 15 a quarter-vote, is the final legislative push by the termed-out San Jose Democrat, an unapologetic liberal and the father of California's self-esteem movement.

"We're just children or that's what some people think,'' said Victoria Martinez, 14, of San Jose, who supports the bill. "But we do have minds and political views.''

Flanked by about two dozen teens at a news briefing Monday, Vasconcellos dubbed his attempt to amend the California Constitution ``Training Wheels for Citizenship,'' a way to engage about 2 million young people at a time of low voter turnout.

If passed, the bill would make California the first state in the nation to lower the voting age below 18 -- something legal experts said is allowed under the federal Constitution.

"By extending the vote to those who didn't own property, then to women, and then to persons of all colors, we added to the richness of our democratic dialogue and our own nation's integrity,'' Vasconcellos said.