News on Youtube Apr 18 2018

Washington, D.C., may let 16-year-olds vote for president.

Is that a good idea

The move to lower the voting age has been given a fresh push by the activism of teenagers

across the country after the Parkland high school shooting.High school students marched

to protest for gun control after the Parkland shooting in Florida and soon they might be

marching straight to the voting booth in the nation's capital.

Washington is on track to become the first place in the country to allow people as young

as 16 to vote in federal elections, including for president, as the nation glimpses the

emerging political power of the generation that follows millennials.

It�s part of a burgeoning movement in the U.S. and abroad as a growing number of cities

and states consider ways to expand voting rights to younger people.

"At the age of 16, our society already gives young people greater legal responsibility.

They can drive a car.

They can work.

Some are raising a family or helping their family make ends meet.

They pay taxes," said D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen, a Democrat who introduced the bill

last week to lower the voting age.

"And yet, they can't exercise their voice where it matters most � at the ballot box."

A majority of the D.C.

Council, as well as Mayor Muriel Bowser, have already signed onto the bill.

The Washington Post has editorialized for passage, arguing that the promotion of civic

engagement outweighs concerns about life experience or precedent.

It's a dramatic turnaround from just three years ago, when Allen introduced a similar

bill that went nowhere.

He credits the change in part to the eloquence and passion that teenage activists demonstrated

in the post-Parkland "March for Our Lives" and nationwide school walkouts to protest

gun violence.Two years ago, the argument that I would hear people make was, really?

Have you met a 16 year old?� Allen told NBC News.

"What we've seen over the last several months has just completely eviscerated that argument."

Takoma Park, Maryland, just over the border from Washington, became the first jurisdiction

in the country to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in 2013.

Since then, a handful of other progressive cities have followed, the largest being Berkeley,

California.

But cities only have the power to extend voting rights for municipal elections.

The District of Columbia � both a city and pseudo-state wrapped up into one � could

enfranchise 16- and-17-year-olds for all elections, from selecting members of advisory neighborhood

councils to the next occupant of the White House.

source www.nbcnews.com