During the main day of “Super Tuesday” for the US presidential election, 16- and 17-year-olds from a small town in Vermont also headed to the polls, but to cast their votes in the local elections.
Even if they're not adults yet, the city of Brattleboro plans to allow these teens to participate in electing local political leaders, the Globe and Mail reported Tuesday.
“To engage people, you have to give them political rights,” Curt Dimes, director of Brattleboro Common Sense, a left-leaning activist group, told the site.
Through this initiative, the municipality of Vermont – a state where more than a quarter of the population is over 65 years old – hopes to give a voice to young people so that they are better represented.
This isn't the first time Brattleboro has featured in an election since the city actually opened local elections last year to non-U.S. citizen residents.
“This is an attempt, to the extent permitted by law, to create a government of the people, by the people and for the people,” City Councilman Eugene Bergman said.
He added to the media: “Whether you are a citizen or not, when you walk on damaged sidewalks or when you try to ride a bike on damaged streets, or when your children ride on these sidewalks, you feel anxious.”
But in the eyes of some, lowering the voting age is seen as an attempt to gain more Liberal votes, which the councilor rejected.
“Democracy will really flourish if there is diversity, if there is active discussion — if there are new people,” he told the Globe and Mail.
