An unprecedented opportunity to study Vote 16 in the United States

After years of promising Vote 16 results in small jurisdictions, Oakland and Newark are implementing Vote 16 for school board votes. This is an unprecedented opportunity to study Vote 16 in the US.

Across Europe and South America, research shows that lowering the voting age increases young people’s civic learning in many ways. We have assumed these findings would replicate in the U.S., but we have never had the opportunity to test this assumption – until now. As two major American cities move to implement Vote 16 for the first time, it’s critically important to implement large scale surveys of young people in partnership with local organizations and school districts so that we can answer key questions about how Vote 16 policies impact U.S. youth.  

We know Vote 16 has positive civic learning outcomes outside the United States.

Resource Alert: Vote16 Literature Review

Research from a growing number of countries in Europe and South America documents many positive effects of lowering the voting age to 16. Enfranchised 16- and 17-year-olds often become more interested in politics, feel more capable of engaging, gain more knowledge about politics, and are more likely to vote in future elections. We heavily rely on this international research to make the case for voting at 16 in the U.S., but we don’t really know yet whether these positive impacts of lowering the voting age on civic learning show up for U.S. youth! 

We need more research on the impact of Vote 16 policies on civic learning in American communities.

In order for Vote 16 to achieve its potential as a modern American suffrage movement, we need evidence from American contexts about how implementing policies lowering the voting age enhances civic learning. Building a broader base of state-level and national support for Vote 16 among policymakers and the public will require rigorous research evidence from cities and towns where Vote 16 has been implemented. We need large-scale survey research of 16- and 17-year-old U.S. voters to determine what happens to civic learning and engagement when we lower the voting age in the United States:

In the United States, do newly enfranchised 16- and 17-year-olds increase their political interest, knowledge, efficacy, and engagement like young people elsewhere have? 

Oakland and Newark are implementing Vote 16. This is an unprecedented opportunity for research.

New York Times: In Newark, 16-Year-Olds Are Set to Get the Vote

We now have the best opportunity we have ever had in the U.S. to do this research. A critical mass of 16- and 17-year-olds have the right to vote in local or school board elections in cities and towns in Maryland, New Jersey, California, and Vermont. Oakland, California and Newark, New Jersey are ideal sites for Vote 16 research because they are large and reflect the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the United States. These cities are actively working to implement their policies to enfranchise 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in school board elections. 

We need to act NOW to set up the capacity to study the impact of Vote 16 implementation in Newark and Oakland.

We should seize the opportunity to assess the impacts of Vote 16 policies on civic learning by conducting research around elections when these policies are implemented in Oakland, Newark, and other large cities. We need to build partnerships with public school districts to do this. Surveying large, representative samples of young people would provide the best tests of the impacts of lowering the voting age. We would need to survey students before and after an election where they were eligible to vote and ideally follow them over time to determine short and long-term impacts of lowering the voting age on civic learning. Doing this research at the right time in the right places could yield major insights to inform and support the expansion of the Vote 16 movement in the U.S. 

Laura Wray-Lake is a Professor of Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Dr. Wray-Lake has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and an SRCD Monograph entitled Pathways to Civic Engagement among Urban Youth of Color. Dr. Wray-Lake’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Templeton Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Haynes Foundation, and AmeriCorps. She received the Mid-Career Award for Research Excellence from the Society for Research on Adolescence in 2020.