Lawmakers across US move to include young people in voting

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Sophia Bollag, Associated Press Updated 8:16 pm, Sunday, April 16, 2017


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Donald Trump's characterization of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists during his presidential campaign angered Heidi Sainz, whose family is from Mexico and who has close friends who are immigrants. She was also upset that she couldn't do anything about it at the ballot box because she was a year shy of being able to vote.

Sainz favors a bill in the California Legislature that would lower the voting age to 17, which she thinks would give a voice to more people affected by the outcome of elections.
 
"Looking at all the protests throughout this year throughout all the high schools across the nation, we could see a lot of the minors were protesting because they felt as if they didn't have a voice," said Sainz, a senior at Inderkum High School in Sacramento.
 
Lawmakers in more than a dozen states are trying to increase voter participation by targeting young people. Their bills are among nearly 500 pieces of legislation introduced around the country this year to make voting easier, according to a March analysis by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Lawmakers-across-US-move-to-include-young-people-11076524.php

[IronLionZion]

1. Interesting idea, young people who want to be involved should definitely be involved

I've had idiots tell me that I'm not allowed to have an opinion about the Gore/Bush election in 2000 because I wasn't 18 yet. I still registered to vote at 17 and watched the debates and read about their policy positions. We studied it in school and had mock debates and an election. It was a big deal.

It was a great irony that the Republican party actually got me registered to vote since I lived in a heavily Repub rural area at the time and they assumed everyone was repub.