{"id":160706,"date":"2022-12-10T21:48:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T21:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=160706"},"modified":"2022-12-17T01:50:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T01:50:25","slug":"ignoring-the-will-of-the-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=160706","title":{"rendered":"Ignoring The Will Of The Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ignoring The Will Of The Voters<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Wendy Schaetzel Lesko | Dec 2022 |<\/strong><\/p>\n

(The opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the author and not necessarily those of YouthFacts.org)<\/em><\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n

Elections are full of surprises, including squeakers.<\/p>\n

Take the recent defeat on a ballot measure in the west Los Angeles hub of film studios with a\u00a0population of 40,000. A small cadre of high school students led a campaign with so little\u00a0money that yard signs got delivered in the final days before November 8. Their goal:<\/p>\n

To extend the right to vote in municipal elections to 16 and 17 year olds in Culver City<\/em>
\nwith the same protections as everyone else, because we know that this age group can<\/em>
\nvote credibly and is affected by legislation.<\/em><\/p>\n

If only seventeen<\/em> more adults marked \u201cyes\u201d for Question QY, the Culver City city council and
\nschool board candidates would have had a new cohort of teen voters in 2024.<\/p>\n

But wait, probably not.<\/p>\n

A predictable pattern of public officials failing to respect the will of the voters and an equal
\ntravesty, fail to respect minors.<\/p>\n

Travel north to Alameda County with a population of 1.6 million. In 2020, a whopping 67
\npercent voted to expand voting rights to 16 and 17 year olds for board of education
\ncandidates. With that overwhelming support, including the endorsement by the current school
\nboard directors, one might think the powers-that-be might roll into action.<\/p>\n

But not a single eligible new voter voted this November. Even though it is complicated to
\ndevelop a special ballot and automate the process for these new voters, the county registrar
\ngets a failing grade. There\u2019s been \u201czero progress\u201d and students \u201care pissed,\u201d says Lukas
\nBrekke-Miesne, an Oakland Unified Student District graduate and executive director of
\nOakland Kids First.<\/p>\n

At the November 2022 Candidates Forum organized by students, Jennifer Brouhard, who
\nwon a seat on the school board, said \u201dI think that it\u2019s a shame and it\u2019s criminal that you were
\nnot allowed to vote in this election. That should have happened. There should have been a
\nplan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you stand more evidence of this disenfranchisement?<\/p>\n

In 2016, Berkeley, California voters had also approved lowering the voting age for school
\nboard races but punted the financial responsibility for implementation on the school district.
\nStalemate. Once again, not a single student has cast a vote since this ballot measure passed
\nsix years ago.<\/p>\n

With all these liberal folks warning about the future of our democracy, it is difficult to believe
\nthey really give a damn about engaging the \u201cleaders of tomorrow.\u201d Quite the opposite: instead
\nof encouraging the habit of voting that research demonstrates is most effective when people
\nbegin at age 16, these public servants lack the will and ingenuity.<\/p>\n

Rather than promoting increased voter turnout, these adults may be responsible for lifelong\u00a0voter turnoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ignoring The Will Of The Voters Wendy Schaetzel Lesko | Dec 2022 | (The opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the author and not necessarily those of YouthFacts.org) ~~~~~~~~~~~ Elections are full of surprises, including squeakers. Take the recent defeat on a ballot measure in the west Los Angeles hub of film studios […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160706"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160739,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160706\/revisions\/160739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}