SAN FRANCISCO—A 2 p.m. remote board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 12, where several members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors plan to introduce a charter amendment that would allow 16 and 17-year old residents to vote in November’s municipal elections.
If passed, teens would have to register with the San Francisco Department of Elections and meet all other voter criteria beyond the 18-year-old age requirment.
Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Shamann Walton endorsed the policy, while Board President Norman Yee and Supervisors Sandra Lee Fewer, Matt Haney, and Hillary Ronen co-sponsored it.
At noon on Tuesday, Yee, Fewer, Haney, and Walton will hold a virtual press conference with Senator Scott Wiener and other San Francisco officials and advocates to discuss the proposal in advance of the board meeting.
The amendment would make San Francisco, the first major U.S. city to grant minors voting rights in municipal elections.
A similar policy called Proposition F was proposed to voters in 2016 and would have granted voting rights to 16 and 17 year-olds in local elections in 2018. In November 2016, Proposition F was rejected by a 47.9 percent vote.
According to Director Kiely Hosmon, the San Francisco Youth Commission has been organizing the Vote16SF 2020 campaign to make a second attempt to pass the measure.
Yee told the San Francisco Examiner on Monday, “People are realizing we need to get more people involved in the democratic process. Now, we have more adults that are willing to step up and help with this effort.”
