City Council Approves Lowering Voting Age In Somerville Elections

SOMERVILLE, MA — Somerville is poised to become the first community in Massachusetts to have a voting age of 16. The city council unanimously voted Thursday night to extend voting rights in local elections to 16- and 17-year-olds, according to Mayor Joseph Curtatone.

The city has sent a Home Rule Petition to the State House for approval.

"It's a recognition these students are engaged & active citizens, with the biggest possible stake in our collective future," Curtatone tweeted Friday.

He added, "Extra thought: We want to make local engagement and democratic participation lifelong habits for our student population."

The lowered voting age would only apply to local elections and not state or federal races.

Last fall, the Somerville Clean and Open Elections Task Force released a report detailing 16 recommendations for future municipal elections, including lowering the voting age to 16 and expanding voting to non-citizens.

The eight-person task force was convened to "look at root causes and take a systems approach to ensure fair, equitable, and open elections that inspire greater participation both by voters and candidates," according to a city press release. It consisted of six residents, as well as Ward 2 Alderman J.T. Scott and Elections Commissioner Nick Salerno.

The additional 14 proposals included non-legislative suggestions with expected positive outcomes, such as holding Election Day festivities near polling places to increase voter turnout. The report cites two studies that show increases of up to 7 percentage points as a result of such events.

Other proposals that require a longer legislative process could boost voter participation, such as holding municipal elections in the same years as state elections, which the report found could increase turnout as much as two-fold.