Free Republic

San Franciscans will cast their ballots in November to decide whether 16-year-olds can vote in local elections. The proposition, if passed, would make San Francisco the first major U.S. city to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in municipal elections. Advocates of the measure say lowering the voting age would instill a lifelong habit of voting.

Why is it illegal for a 30-year-old man to have sex with a 15-year-old girl? She might be cute, willing, single… Heck, she might even have initiated the contact. If they both want to, why should it be illegal? Well, statutory rape laws exist for a good and important reason: under the law, even if that girl says “yes,” the man cannot accept that “yes.” She is not deemed old enough under the law to give her consent. She is not considered ready, in our society, to make such a serious and potentially life-altering decision. As in the cases of...

During the dying days of the Roman Republic, with effete senators stabbing each other in the back when they were not busy in orgies, Julius Caesar followed the exact trajectory of a Leviathan—what Thomas Hobbes described beautifully hundreds of years later. Caesar, by this time opposed to the Senate, which obstructed his imperial aims, decided to cross the river Rubicon, thereby declaring war on the last vestiges of the craven republic. After crossing the river, Caesar famously said Alea Eacta Est, or the die is cast. Thus crossing the Rubicon is now considered a revolutionary act that aims to destroy...

Little girls and boys across the country are skipping school today to protest inaction on climate change by adults. I guess schools have changed a lot since I was suspended for walking out on Vietam War Moratorium Day in 1969. In the case of the climate change "strike," school authorities are, in many cases, looking on with approval. The stunt is supposedly the kids' idea, but they're recieving some "help": "I've always been passionate about fixing something when I see something is wrong," says Coleman, whose environmental activism began with a campaign to help manatees. "I ended up saving one...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) voiced her support on Thursday for lowering the federal voting age to 16, telling reporters during a press conference that doing so would be a boon to voter engagement in the U.S. Pelosi said Thursday that lowering the voting age would drive interest in politics among younger Americans who are learning about the subject in high school. The Speaker said that changing the voting age to 16 would help drive a higher level of voter awareness and turnout. "I myself have always been for lowering the voting age to 16," Pelosi said. "I think it's...

If you're 16 in this country, you can drive, get a job and pay taxes — even marry or buy a gun, in some states. But you can't vote in national elections. Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley is trying to change that. The freshman lawmaker introduced her first amendment in Congress Tuesday. It's a proposal to lower the national voting age from 18 to 16. Pressley's amendment is being added to a sweeping, election-reform bill in the House of Representatives. That bill is in the hands of the House Rules Committee, chaired by Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern. And in Boston, city...

As scores of young people crowded into a hearing room in the Wilson Building on Wednesday, D.C. Council members saw the future of D.C. politics. “There are multiple future council members and a future mayor in this room,” said D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6). But before they run for office, Allen wants to make them voters. A bill he introduced in April would do just that, lowering the voting age to 16. If passed, the bill would enfranchise up to 10,600 16- and 17-year-olds, according to Census Bureau data. It would also be historic. The nation’s capital would...

Documentary filmmaker and left-wing activist Michael Moore took to Twitter on Monday and shared the “one thing” he says we’ve “learned” since last month’s horrific mass shooting. “If there’s one thing we’ve learned since Parkland, it’s that the voting age should be lowered to 16. Other countries do it, we should too.” Moore was among the throng of celebrities who took to social media to shower praise on the thousands of students and activists who hit the streets in Washington, DC, and in other cities across the country and marched in support of gun control. “I’d say at least one...

The real adults in the room are the youth from Parkland, Florida, who are speaking out about the need for meaningful gun control laws. They are proving that civic engagement among young people can make a difference. The ironic part? They can't even vote yet. Several municipalities in the United States allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections. Takoma Park, Maryland, was the first city to lower the voting age, thanks mostly to the advocacy efforts of youth themselves who convinced the city council that they should have a voice in local governance. Other cities in Maryland, like...

Many 18-year-olds are registered for their first semester of college classes, but very few of them are registered to vote. As adults in a democracy, young people have this great privilege and responsibility, yet very few take advantage of the opportunity. Their disregard is not the result of indifference or immaturity, but of an overwhelming amount of new responsibilities. Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10 (ACA 10) is a bipartisan constitutional amendment that would lower the voting age from 18 to 17 in California. This may seem like a minor shift, but it would be pivotal in youth turnout for elections. At...

Stung by recent election defeats, Democrats are leading the charge to lower the voting age to 17, with a little help from liberal billionaire George Soros. In California, Democratic legislators introduced this week a landmark bill, ACA 10, that would give the Golden State the nation’s youngest statewide voting age by lowering the threshold from 18 to 17 in the name of reversing the slide in voter turnout. “Young people are our future,” said Democratic Assembly member Evan Low, the measure’s sponsor. “Lowering the voting age will help give them a voice in the democratic process and instill a lifelong...

The Left’s Next Battlefront If you thought the transgender bathroom was the hill upon which the progressive movement would die, get ready for the next outrageous little war the left is waging against common sense. Last week the City of San Francisco passed an amendment (9-2) to lower the voting age to 16 years old. It will appear on this November’s ballot in an effort to expand voting “rights”. It may be tempting to laugh it off as “wacky San Francisco”, but advocates intend to replicate this around the country, and worldwide. Their wishes may be soon granted: Council members...

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is flirting with the idea of letting 16- and 17-year-olds vote in local elections. Last year, Supervisor John Avalos floated the notion, but it didn't go anywhere. But this is an election year -- and in election years, noxious proposals carry extra currency. So expect City Hall to pass the measure and put it on the ballot. Then expect voters to exercise better judgment and reject the measure. Sadly, Supervisor Scott Wiener -- San Francisco's idea of a moderate -- has announced that he is inclined to support the measure. Ditto progressive Supervisor Jane...

<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio judge on Friday granted a request to let 17-year-olds vote in the swing state's presidential primary just days before the election.</p> <p>Ohio allows 17-year-olds who will be 18 before the fall election to vote in Tuesday's primary, with some exceptions. Young Ohio voters can decide on congressional, legislative and mayoral contenders, but they can't vote on ballot issues or candidates for a political party's governing body.</p>

Scotland allowed 16 and 17 year olds to vote in yesterday’s historic referendum on independence. Georgetown political theorist Jason Brennan, author of the excellent book The Ethics of Voting, makes a strong case that the United States should do the same thing: Scotland decided to trust its 16-year-olds to vote in the biggest question in its history when the country headed to the polls this week for a referendum on independence. Americans, in contrast, don’t even trust theirs to help pick the county sheriff. Who’s right? Many here might be skeptical about the idea of the United States following Scotland’s...

Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of the wealthiest and most liberal counties in America. If there’s a dumb progressive idea that didn’t start there, it will get there sooner or later. Along those lines, the powers that be in Montgomery County are very concerned about low voter turnout. So concerned, in fact, the all Democrat County Council formed a “Right to Vote” Task Force to come up with ways to encourage more people to vote. The task force produced a 76-page report with more than a few suggestions that could raise a few eyebrows. Recommendations 1-3 are: 1. The Task...

A small Maryland city just outside the Washington, D.C., city limits has voted to lower the voting age for city elections to 16. … The council also voted to allow convicted felons who have served their time to vote. …

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said late last week that the United States should lower the voting age by two years, to 16. "Why shouldn't 16-year-old vote?" Ellison tweeted last week, according to Minnesota's Fridley Patch. "They can drive. Some have jobs. Let's empower our youth." The Patch said Ellison's message started a Twitter debate on the subject, in which some said teens that young are not informed enough to vote. But Ellison rejected that.

In case you haven't heard, there's a new site called Change.org that has as its founding value change. This site is deeply deferential to its hero, our messiah Barack Obama. So why should we get involved with this site? They're holding a contest, "Ideas for Change", and we're in deep danger of getting some of these ideas lobbied intensely for, and even implemented. People submitted over 7,000 ideas throughout November and December. Their fellow Change.orgizens voted on the ideas, and the top 3 ideas from each of 21 categories went on to the finals. The top 10 ideas from the...

California Lawmakers Propose Teenage Voting Rights, Paper Says By Samantha Zee May 6 (Bloomberg) -- The legal voting age in California could drop to 14, after the Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee voted 3-2 to pass legislation that would lower the state's age, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. State Senator John Vasconcellos, a Democrat from Santa Clara, whose bills support the change in voting age, asked committee members to see young people as more critically thinking, civic-minded Americans than as ``aliens form Mars to be frightened of,'' the newspaper reported. If the bills by Vasconcellos become law, the California constitution...