Lower voting age looks to have support of SF Board of Supervisors

Critics of the proposal have questioned lowering the voting age below 18, which is the legal age of adulthood.

Avalos and other supporters say it will encourage civic engagement among youths and instill in them lifelong voting habits.

“Young people have a tremendous ability to express themselves not just through their community work but through voting as well,” Avalos said at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Members of the San Francisco Youth Commission, which has championed the proposal, sat next to the supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting, and dozens more youth filled the board chambers to testify in support of lowering the voting age.

Jillian Wu, 17, a senior at Lick-Wilmerding High School and vice chair of the Youth Commission, said that a “strong voter is at the cornerstone of building a healthy democracy” and that lowering the voting age will “build lifelong voters and strengthen our democracy.”

The commission’s chairman, Luis Avalos-Nuñez, 22, said the measure would empower immigrant families, especially those with undocumented parents who lack the right to vote.

Supervisor Malia Cohen questioned the cost and feasibility of lowering the voting age.

The Department of Elections estimates that if the voting age is lowered to 16, that would affect between 10,000 and 13,000 youth.