Some older teenagers in the Bay Area will have a chance to make their voices heard in this election — albeit in a limited way.
Although 16- and 17-year-olds living in Oakland and Berkeley are still barred from voting in higher-profile races like president or congress. be able to vote in upcoming school board elections, which determine leadership and policy for local districts.
The vote was extended thanks to the passage of Berkeley’s Measure Y1 and Oakland’s Measure QQ, according to a joint news release.
The state already has a system that pre-registers 16- and 17-year-olds to vote, and their registration becomes active when they turn 18, officials said. The same system will be used to allow them to vote in their local school board elections, but not other races scheduled at the same time, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
“This has never been done before in California and we had to make sure it was done properly,” Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis said in a statement. “I would like to thank the Board of Supervisors for their support in helping make it possible for 16- and 17-year-olds in Oakland and Berkeley to vote for the school board in November 2024.”
Four of seven board seats in the Oakland Unified School District are up for election in November, as are two in the Berkeley Unified School District.
“Voting is not only a right but a civic duty, and extending this right to 16- and 17-year-olds will foster a culture of civic participation from an early age,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement.
Although the goal of this new policy is to increase voter turnout among youth, its effects will not be known until the polls close. And many minors can still choose not to vote.
“I personally am not that political, especially by today’s standards,” Naseem Bennett, a 17-year-old Oakland Tech senior, told Mercury News. “But would I vote? I’d think about it.”