Lawmaker: Lower voting age to 16

PHOENIX — Rebecca Alvarado wants to have a say about the war in Iraq, gay marriage and illegal immigration. She wants to help select the next president.

“I want my voice to be heard,” Alvarado said. “I want to make a difference in the world.”

But Alvarado can’t help decide those issues as a voter, at least for now. She’s 16.

“I work. I pay taxes,” she said. “Why can’t I decide where my money goes?”

That would change if a state lawmaker has his way.

Saying that getting teens involved in the political process sooner would help create voters for life, Rep. Ed Ableser, D-Tempe, has proposed a constitutional amendment that would lower Arizona’s voting age from 18 to 16. If it did so, Arizona would follow the lead of countries such as Brazil, Nicaragua and Austria.

“The best way to change low voter turnout is to educate the youth on their duty as citizens to vote,” Ableser said. “For young people, voting early will hopefully stick with them and they’ll vote again and again.”

Alvarado, the sophomore class president at Central High School in Phoenix, said people her age are eager to have a say as voters. By lowering the voting age to 16, she said, more young people would take the initiative to learn about candidates.

“There’s a lot going on that we can’t do anything about,” Alvarado said.

Lawmakers in several other states have proposed lowering the voting age to 16, though none of the bills has become law.

The idea of lowering the voting age is gaining momentum around the country, said Alex Koroknay-Palicz, executive director of the National Youth Rights Association, a Washington, D.C.-based group that campaigns for youth rights.

“This is definitely the way the world is moving, and if Arizona could be the first state to get the ball rolling, I think it would be a good thing for the state and young people all over the world,” Koroknay-Palicz said.

In the past several years, lawmakers in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Florida, Alaska, California, New York, Texas and Washington have pushed unsuccessfully to lower the voting age to 16.

In response to Ableser’s bill, the Arizona Republican Party e-mailed a statement attributed to Executive Director Sean McCaffrey saying 16 year olds’ biggest needs involve issues such as funding for schools .

“Arizona Democrats might need 16-year-olds to register and vote in November, but Arizona 16 -year-olds need real leadership today,” the statement said.

Cronkite News Service is an intensive professional experience for advanced print and broadcast students in Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.