Berkeley is one step closer to allowing people ages 16 and 17 the chance to vote after the City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday evening to move forward with the implementation of the youth vote.
The move comes eight years after Berkeley voters passed Measure Y1, which changed the city charter to allow 16 and 17-year-olds the ability to vote for school board directors in the city.
The implementation of the measure by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters has since stalled, but as the county elections office prepares its technology systems to allow for youth voting this November, Berkeley and Oakland are taking steps to formalize the processes.
The ordinance approved by the council authorizes the use of youth voting for the office of Berkeley Unified school director and a resolution allowing youth voting specifically in this November’s election. The resolution also requests that a voter center be established on the Berkeley High School campus “if doing so is reasonably feasible and practical.”
“It makes complete sense,” Mayor Jesse Arreguín said during Tuesday’s meeting. “They know more than we do about what they need and who should best represent them in making decisions about the Berkeley Unified School District. So I think this is a really important, exciting step, and my hope is that this will be the beginning of efforts to broaden the ability of young people to be able to vote in elections — not just school board elections.”
The vote was unanimous among the council members present (two were absent).
Several former and current high school students and community members spoke in support of the measure during the meeting.
“I have a lot of opinions about the problems that face my school,” said Jacob Goldman, a rising senior at Berkeley High School. Being able to vote “would mean my peers and I would feel represented in the schools we attend every day. If we are considered old enough to drive cars at 16, I believe we are old enough to vote.”
Asked by the mayor what kind of outreach was being planned to get the word out about voting to these young people, Berkeley City Clerk Mark Numainville explained that the focus has seemed largely to be simply on getting the technological systems in place to allow for the voting. Getting that finalized is not quite complete.
“The registrar is still doing a lot of testing and verification to make sure it’s going to be technically feasible. Once we know for sure it’s going to happen in 2024, the outreach machine will kick into gear,” he said, noting that the school district will likely take the lead on outreach to young voters, along with the county registrar.
The ordinance stipulates that Berkeley Unified would be responsible for incurring any additional costs of the youth voting, although it was still unclear Tuesday what the additional costs would be. School district and county leaders did not answer questions about what the costs might total.
“We’ll do the most that we can in the city while adhering to the charter directive that no direct or indirect funding from city [be used],” Numainville said of the outreach and voter education effort.
Each of the councilmembers who spoke Tuesday indicated support not just for this measure but for the potential for teenagers age 16 and 17 to vote in all local elections. Maryland allows cities to lower the voting age for local elections without requiring a ballot measure. So far, five cities there have made changes to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local municipal elections.
“There is a lot of data that shows habits formed in high school are lifelong,” said Sophie Hahn, who represents Berkeley’s District 5. “Why not imprint the most important habit a citizen can have, which is to vote?”
If all goes according to plan this fall, Berkeley and Oakland would be the first California cities to implement youth voting. But the idea has gained traction in several cities across the country, including the several cities in Maryland. Newark, New Jersey, legally lowered the voting age for local elections early this year, and now city leaders are working to implement it.
“I just regret that it took so long for it to happen,” said Berkeley’s District 1 councilmember, Rashi Kesarwani. “This is a national movement. I want to congratulate the young people who pushed for it.”
The measure does not provide for teenagers under 18 running for elected office — on the school board or for other positions but Berkeley leaders aren’t ruling that out. “Maybe that’s the next step,” said Arreguín during Tuesday’s meeting.
Featured photo: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight