The small left-leaning town of Brattleboro, Vermont could soon allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections.
The "youth vote amendment" is set to be considered on Tuesday as part of the town's annual town meeting. If it passes, Vermont's legislature will have to approve the measure and amend the state's constitution, Brattleboro Town Clerk Annette Cappy told the Sentinel Source.
Vermont's current minimum voting age is 18, which would stay the same for state and federal elections, but town elections would be open to teenagers as young as 16.
According to Cappy, the measure would only apply to local decisions like races for select board and school board.
Long time activist, Kurt Daims, is largely responsible for the idea, according to Reuters.
Daims believes that lowering the voting age would increase voter turnout and extend rights to a group of voters that he says is "disenfranchised."
"Many teens have part-time jobs," Daims said an interview. "They pay sales tax like everyone else. Yet, they have no representation in government."
"That's a terrible failure of our democracy," he added.
Daims led a 2008 effort to have Brattleboro indict former President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for their involvement in the Iraq War. The nonbinding, symbolic gesture passed in Brattleboro and the nearby town of Marlboro, Reuters reported.
Takoma Park, Md. is currently the only city in the U.S. that allows 16-year-olds to vote, which it enacted in 2013, The Washington Post reported.
Voting rights group FairVote has supported both movements, arguing that a lower voting age helps engage teenagers in politics at a critical stage of development.
Opponents of a lower voting age say teenagers don't have enough maturity or judgement to be trusted with such an important decision.
Cappy told The Associated Press that older voters haven't voiced much support for the measure.
"People just feel that it's not appropriate, that a lot of 16-year-olds don't really care what's on the ballot," she told the Sentinel.
