On Wednesday, the Boston City Council approved a petition to lower the voting age to 16 in municipal elections by a 9 to 4 vote. Tees would also have to meet all other legal qualifications to become a registered voters. The proposal needs to be signed by Mayor Michelle Wu before it goes to the Massachusetts Legislature for approval.
Similar proposals were approved in recent years in Cambridge and Somerville, but neither made it through the State House.
City Councilors Ed Flyn, Erin Murphy, Michael Flaherty and Frank Baker voted against the petition.
What do you think?
Maureen Dahill is the editor of Caught in Southie and a lifelong resident of South Boston sometimes mistaken for a yuppie. Co-host of Caught Up, storyteller, lover of red wine and binge watching TV series. Mrs. Peter G. Follow her @MaureenCaught.
I work the polls and you can’t get 18 through 30 year olds to vote so what makes anyone think 16 year olds will.
…”Packing the Polls”… Anybody wanna take a stab at which esteemed councillors are “for” or “against” this ludicrous proposal?
A couple of weeks ago we had TENS OF THOUSANDS of (potential) votes inexplicably cleaved and extracted from “certain” neighborhoods and shifted elsewhere…and now this. It is all too obvious what “this” is. For decades and decades “certain” members of society have been fiscally rewarded (read: over-compensated) merely for the act of reproduction. The results speak for themselves and now waiting to the age of adulthood isn’t even enough for them.
They want more . They want it ALL.
And they want it NOW.
This is absurd. This is abhorrent. This is America.
Stick a fork in us.
Oh, they’ll vote alright.
Whether for a well-placed pair of new Air Jordans or some sweet new headphones or…yeah.
They’ll vote
These new progressive councilors are totally out of there minds . Our country is doomed
16 year olds are doing their own thing, as they should be, and not be wound up in politics. I feel many of them would only vote for who their parents or whoever is raising them are voting for. Maybe 1% of 16 year olds probably follow politics and that is probably because a member of their family is in politics.
raise the age to 25 but 18 if you are in the military….and require voter ID
Just go away with the liberal agenda ! Doesn’t the city council have anything else to discuss like #1 care of veterans !!
Really they also talked about doing away with police which is out of control!!
Then they allowed legislators to do away with the civil service exam for Firefighters !
Which they unanimously voted to do away with exams for BPS which is all part of the dummy down process !
Well take away the busing process and that will save the taxpayers a ton of money and perhaps use it more constructively for tutoring our youth .