{"id":3257,"date":"2005-04-09T10:16:24","date_gmt":"2005-04-09T17:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2005\/04\/09\/voting-at-16-in-was-future\/"},"modified":"2019-12-13T11:42:02","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T19:42:02","slug":"voting-at-16-in-was-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2005\/04\/09\/voting-at-16-in-was-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting at 16 in WA&#8217;s future?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:8516,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.youthrights.org&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260224200921\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.youthrights.org\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 10:45:02&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 10:45:02&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8517,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\\\/html\\\/localnews\\\/2002236335_voting09m.html?syndication=rss&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20060615205730\\\/http:\\\/\\\/seattletimes.nwsource.com:80\\\/html\\\/localnews\\\/2002236335_voting09m.html?syndication=rss&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 10:45:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 10:45:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6221,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/click?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941.10000170&amp;type=4&amp;subid=0&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>All stereotypes aside, not <em>all<\/em> teenagers are solely interested in video games and bad music. Some of them are interested in video games, bad music (I kid, I kid&#8230;) &#8212; and voting. Here in Washington, the local chapter of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youthrights.org\/\" title=\"National Youth Rights Association\">National Youth Rights Association<\/a> is working on <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/localnews\/2002236335_voting09m.html?syndication=rss\" title=\"A few teens push to lower voting age\">lowering the state&#8217;s voting age to 16<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  Our country is founded on the concept of no taxation without representation,&#8221; 17-year-old Heather Kelley told the House Government Operations and Accountability Committee. &#8220;Eighty percent of teens work, yet we have no say on how those taxes are being spent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  For Olympia High School student Kelley, as well as fellow Olympia seniors Kehlen Sachet and Jason Puz, also 17, what began as a class project last fall has gained enough momentum to become a bill in the Legislature.<\/p>\n<p>  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>  In Washington, the students&#8217; arguments caught the attention of Rep. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia. He ended up sponsoring the bill after the students visited his office a couple of months ago.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;They gave a reasoned, well-researched presentation on why they thought it was a good idea,&#8221; Hunt said.<\/p>\n<p>  The state constitution would have to be amended to change the voting age. Amending the constitution requires two-thirds approval from both houses of the Legislature before the issue heads to voters.<\/p>\n<p>  At the federal level, the U.S. Constitution originally defined the voting age as 21, among a slew of other qualifications. The passage of the 26th Amendment in 1971 lowered the age to 18.<\/p>\n<p>  States are prohibited from raising the age, but there are no restrictions on lowering it, according to the state&#8217;s Office of Program Research.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nifty! I certainly don&#8217;t have any issues with this &#8212; if they&#8217;re actually interested enough to participate and vote, I see no reason why they shouldn&#8217;t be able to.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/click?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941.10000170&amp;type=4&amp;subid=0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"iTunes\" border=\"0\" width=\"61\" height=\"15\" src=\"http:\/\/images.apple.com\/itunesaffiliates\/logos\/iTunes_sm_bdg61x15.png\" \/><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/ad.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/show?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;bids=78941.10000170&amp;type=4&amp;subid=0\" \/> &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FsongTerm=Something Fast%26partnerId%3D30\" title=\"Search for 'Something Fast' on the iTMS\">Something Fast<\/a>&#8221; by <a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DSisters of Mercy, The%26partnerId%3D30\" title=\"Search for Sisters of Mercy, The on the iTMS\">Sisters of Mercy, The<\/a> from the album <em><a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FalbumTerm=Vision Thing%26partnerId%3D30\" title=\"Search for Vision Thing on the iTMS\">Vision Thing<\/a><\/em> (1990, 4:37).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All stereotypes aside, not _all_ teenagers are solely interested in video games and bad music. Some of them are interested in video games, bad music &#8212; and voting. Here in Washington, the local chapter of the NYRA is working on lowering the state&#8217;s voting age to 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2042],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-3257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}