State Bill Would Allow City to Make Voting Age 16

If a bill under consideration at the State Capitol is approved, the city would be authorized to lower the voting age in local elections to sixteen.

Under the proposal, each city and town would have the option to allow sixteen and seventeen year old residents to vote. These younger voters would only be authorized to vote in city or town elections and only in the cities and towns that allow it.

The legislation, House Bill 6672, would provide that,

Any municipality may, by ordinance, permit bona fide residents of such municipality who have attained the age of sixteen years to vote (1) at any regular or special municipal election for only the officers of such municipality or at any primary for only the nomination of candidates for such officers, and (2) at any referendum for any question or proposal of only such municipality.

This would mean that, if this state legislation were approved, it would be up local legislation taken up by the City Council to determine whether to allow sixteen and seventeen years olds to vote in New Britain city elections.

The sponsor of the state legislation, Rep. Christopher Ziogas (D-79), says that he introduced the proposal at the request of two young people of opposite party alignment. The two high school students, Ritesh Vidhun and Christopher Ficeto, testified at a recent public hearing at the State Capitol on the bill.

Vidhun testified that he campaigned for Republican Bob Stefanowski, while Christopher Ficeto testified that he campaigned for Democrats.

Vidhun and Ficeto expressed frustration that, though being politically informed and active in helping candidates to win election, they were not able to vote, themselves.

“Ritesh and I both volunteered for multiple political campaigns for candidates on both sides of the aisle,” said Ficeto, “and we were astonished to see how many high school students, just like us, were working on these campaigns.”

“We studied the issues and worked hard and put in as much effort as we could to help our candidates, just like all of the other volunteers,” Ficeto said. “But in the end, unfortunately, we could only watch the outcome. We could not vote.”

“Although we work hard to campaign and convince adults to vote during the elections,” Vidhun said, “we are not given the opportunity to physically cast our own ballots and have our voices heard by the politicians for whom we are campaigning.”

“If there was a criticism that came forward that sixteen and seventeen year olds aren’t capable of absorbing the kind of information necessary to make a vote,” Ziogas said of the two young people, “I think these people are perfect examples of why that’s not true.”

The legislation is still far from becoming law. It is under consideration in the legislature’s Government Administration and Elections Committee. The bill would likely need the approved of a number of legislative committees, and then be approved by the full state House of Representatives and Senate and the governor before becoming law.

If it is approved, it would be up to members of the New Britain City Council to decide if sixteen and seventeen year olds should be allowed to vote in city elections.

Ald. Aram Ayalon (D-3) said that he would support the idea, “together with enhanced and mandatory civics education about local issues.” In addition to serving on the City Council, Ayalon is an Educational Leadership, Policy and Instructional Technology professor at CCSU.

As currently drafted, the state legislation would appear that it would allow the cities and towns to decrease the voting age in their local elections to sixteen as early as this year’s elections.