Measure V: Meet the 2 teenagers on a mission to lower voting age in Albany
A pair of Albany High School students are working to give their peers and future students a voice in local elections.
For Nirvaan Jaswal and Sam Beynon, two Albany High students, there's one freedom that's still out of reach.
"We learn about government, and we form our own opinions on all these things we're seeing around in our world. But the one thing we can't do is vote on them," Jaswal said.
For the last year, Jaswal, a junior, and Beynon, a senior, have been laser-focused on changing that.
"Really, it's just a matter of young adults who want to make change in the world and they're being told, 'No, you're too young," Jaswal said.
Just days before the election, they crisscrossed the streets of Albany to distribute flyers, hoping to convince the city's 20,000 residents to vote yes on Measure V — which would lower the age requirement for local and school board elections to 16.
Their grassroots campaign has already caught the eye of major news outlets, including Politico.
Albany High's Principal Darren McNally said regardless of what happens on Nov. 5, Jaswal and Beynon have already fired up not just the school but the entire town.
"It's really taken Albany by storm," he said.
The movement to lower the voting age is gaining traction nationwide. Cities in Maryland and Vermont already allow teenagers to vote in local elections. In a historic first for California, 16- and 17-year-olds in Berkeley and Oakland will be able to cast ballots in school board elections this year.
Some have questioned whether teenagers have the mental capacity to vote. but Laura Wray-Lake, a UCLA researcher on youth civic engagement said studies show that worry is a bit of a myth.
"There's brain research showing that young people have the decision-making capacity, particularly for reasoned and planned decisions, which voting is," she said.
Critics also believe younger voters tend to be more liberal and that could tilt elections. But Wray-Lake said that argument doesn't hold either.
"Not all young people are liberal, and we don't give rights or deny rights based on people's political orientation," she said.
For Jaswal and Beynon it's about having a say in matters that affect their generation.
"If we do win, I think we'll feel a great sense of pride and hard work being paid off," Beynon said.
