Thomas MacMillan Photo
Alderwoman Clark.
Teens looking to win the right to vote before their 18th birthdays might take a lesson from an aldermanic decision Tuesday night: Just as in school, attendance counts.
The Board of Aldermen Tuesday voted down a proposal that would have placed a referendum on the November general election ballot, asking New Haveners if the state should lower the voting age from 18 to 16.
Fair Haven Heights Alderwoman Maureen O’Sullivan-Best was the most vocal among the opposition. She offered pointed criticism of the fact that none of the measure’s many teenage supporters showed up at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Board of Aldermen.
Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark, the chair of the Youth Services Committee, presented the matter to the board. She explained that the initiative began in a civics class at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School. Students there began in May to organize around the idea that 16-year-olds should be allowed to vote. They wrote editorials, held a rally, and formed an organization called “New18.” Last week, they took part in a spirited hearing on the matter in the aldermanic chamber at City Hall.
Sixteen-year-olds can get married, be tried as felons, work, and pay taxes, Clark said Tuesday night. But they can’t vote.
“I believe we should give these young people an opportunity to bring a referendum to voters,” she said.
Alderwoman O’Sullivan-Best.
O’Sullivan-Best stood in opposition to the plan. First she said that most of the teens pushing for the voting-age change are not New Haveners.
“Every penny counts in this city,” she said. “Why should I have to pay for a referendum” for teens that don’t live here?
Then O’Sullivan-Best asked why the New18 committee hadn’t shown up for the aldermen’s vote. Not one of them was in the chamber, she said.
“This was the group they needed to convince,” she said. “Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re ready.”
Aldermen Yusuf Shah and Justin Elicker were the only two other lawmakers to speak up on the matter. Shah said he supported the referendum, but said 16-year-olds aren’t ready to vote. Elicker opposed the referendum, because referenda should be done sparingly, and only on things actually within the city’s control, he said.
The matter needed 20 yes-votes to succeed. It went down in a vote of 7 to 13.
“I don’t mind that you voted down the referendum,” Clark later announced to her colleagues. It was all part of helping young people learn the democratic process, she said.
The night’s lesson was that the referendum push suffered from an absence of supporters in the chamber Tuesday night, Clark said. “I’ll be sure that lesson gets back to them.”
So that they don’t make the same mistake next time, she said.
Again I say, the only meaningful change in voter qualification is an IQ test. Those with scores of 100+ should vote regardless of age and those who are dumber should never vote. It's way past time we stop letting stupid people make decisions the rest of us have to live with.