Youth organizers mobilizing for voting rights confront “adultist” attitudes

In November, voters in Oakland approved Measure QQ, which gives 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in school board elections. Meanwhile, voters in San Francisco rejected Proposition G, which would have lowered the voting age for municipal elections to 16. Statewide, a measure to allow residents as young as 16 to vote in primaries also failed. Ixchel Arista, a 15-year-old organizer with Oakland Kids First, and Sarah Cheung, a 17-year-old San Francisco Youth Commissioner, said they encountered voters in their phone banking campaigns who doubted young peoples’ ability to make sound decisions — an attitude they described as “adultist.”