Voting age for Oakland, Berkeley school boards lowered to 16
For the first time in California, 16- and 17-year-olds in Oakland and Berkeley will be allowed to vote in their respective school board elections in November.
In a joint announcement from Alameda County, the City of Oakland, the City of Berkeley, and the Oakland Unified School District said extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds was thanks to the passage of Berkeley's Measure Y1 passed in 2016 and Oakland's Measure QQ passed in 2020.
California currently has a system that allows 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote and have their registration become active once they turn 18. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters says the same system will be used to allow youth voters to vote in their local school board races in Oakland or Berkeley.
Any 16- or 17-year-old Oakland or Berkeley resident who previously pre-registered to vote will be automatically registered as a youth voter, the announcement said.
"I am very pleased to have the technology and processes in place to deliver youth voting, passed by the voters of Berkeley and Oakland through Measures Y1 and QQ," said County Registrar Tim Dupuis in a prepared statement. "This has never been done before in California and we had to make sure that it was done properly. I would like to thank the Board of Supervisors for their support in helping make it possible for 16- and 17-year-olds in Oakland and Berkeley to vote for school board in November 2024."
"Voting is not just a right but a civic duty, and extending this right to 16- and 17-year-olds will foster a culture of civic participation from an early age, " said Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao in a statement.
"By giving 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote about their education, we help to create lifelong voters who are more likely to participate in future local and national elections," said Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín. "Early involvement fosters a sense of civic duty and strengthens our democracy for generations to come."
In the U.S., only a handful of municipalities in Maryland allow youth voting for municipal elections and referendums. The larger populations of Berkeley and Oakland means the potential youth vote in both cities would be greater than all the Maryland municipalities combined.
The joint announcement noted the complexity of enabling the youth vote, saying what might have seemed simple in 2016 when Measure Y1 was first passed turned out to be a complicated process. All aspects of the election, including voter registration, ballot mailing, and ballot counting had to be mapped, programmed and tested specifically for youth voters to ensure the integrity of the election for both youth voters and traditional voters, the announcement stated.
All Alameda County voters were to be mailed voter information guides starting September 26 and ballots were set to be mailed the week of October 7. The last day for all voters, including youth voters, to register online to vote is October 21 although voters can also register at the Registrar of Voters at 1225 Fallon Street in Oakland through Election Day.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 5.