The year was 2025. In the wake of a polarized presidential election, the Vote16 movement — a national push to lower the voting age — was in full swing.
While grassroots movements sprang to life in San Francisco, nearby Bay Area cities like Albany became some of the first in the nation to grant 16-year-olds the right to vote in local elections. And it served as the motivation for Vote 16 Palo Alto — which would let 16-year-olds vote in municipal elections.
That’s when Gunn High School students Iris Blanchet and Rayla Chen stepped in, opening their own chapter of Vote16USA, an offshoot of Generation Citizen, a non-profit organization that focuses on action civics education for middle and high school students in 2015.
They knew the odds were against them. To make Vote 16 a reality, they needed 3,000 signatures. The catch? Both the signature collector and petition signers needed to be 18. Another catch: They needed adult witnesses for every signature.
From September of last year to May of this year, they crisscrossed Palo Alto, knocking on doors and running tables at the No King’s Democracy Fair to gather
signatures.
“The main thing we learned was how to navigate the city’s referendum and ballot measure process, as well as what events we should go to to collect signatures,” Blanchet stated in a separate email with Anthro Magazine.
The ultimate goal for Vote 16 Palo Alto is to amend the city charter to allow 16-year-olds to vote in city elections (Ironically, students wouldn’t be able to vote in Palo Alto school board elections because of a logistical technicality.)
“In the PAUSD school board, we can’t lower the voting age because it actually incorporates part of Los Altos Hills as well,” Chen said.
In the end, after months of campaigning, Vote 16 Palo Alto got 900 signatures — 30% of their goal.
“We are most proud of the fact that we managed to drive public debate for this issue into the forefront of Palo Alto politics,” Blanchet said. “We were able to meet with many City Council officials who otherwise would not have considered this issue, and we were able to get significant support from public officials in the city.”
Since the effort did not reach the goal by the deadline, they needed to seek alternative ways to get their proposal on the ballot.
“We still have the option for city council members to vote on it and to put it on the ballot,” Chen said. “The nex steps for that to happen really just comes down to connections and networking and really just doing a lot of convincing work. … We also have a lot more meetings coming up with local advocates and local politicians, and so we’re very much looking forward to that.”
In an email with Anthro Magazine, Mahealani Ah Yun, city clerk of Palo Alto said the deadline to submit the petition signatures was Monday, April 13.
“Under California Elections Code procedures, proponents generally have 180 days from receipt of the ballot title and summary to circulate and file signatures,” Ah Yun stated. “In this case, because the 180th day fell on a Sunday, the filing deadline was extended to the next business day.”
Ah Yun added the City Council retains the authority to place measures on the ballot directly by Council action.
Palo Alto City Council Member Julie Lythcott-Haimes said there are people who have the ability to make a thoughtful choice in every generation.
“There are plenty of people in their elder years who are starting to lose their faculties,” Lythcott-Haimes said. “We don’t say there should be some tests to see if they’re worthy of casting a vote, so I think there are plenty of people in this 16 and 17 age group that are eager to participate, hungry to do the work and to be educated on the issues.”
Critics of Vote 16 may doubt if teens possess the maturity to take on the responsibility of voting, but Lythcott-Haimes said a voter’s age is not always an indicator of how informed they are.
“When the Palo Alto student Climate Coalition comes to speak before city council, they are some of the most informed people we ever hear from on the topic,” Lythcott-Haimes said. “It’s a great example of how youth may even know more about an issue, perhaps because the consequences for them are so great … long term.”
According to Palo Alto High School school board representative Dylan Chen, 16-year-olds are more than qualified to vote.
“A Politician’s job is to find the best policy or best action,” Dylan Chen said. “The voter’s job is to report your concerns and what you care about to the politician … a 16 year old is perfectly aware of what their concerns are and what they care about.”
Lythcott-Haimes said she will “strongly consider” putting Vote 16 on the ballot.
In a separate email with Anthro Magazine, Blanchet said Vote 16 Palo Alto is using tabling to seek new member for this effort.
“Last weekend, I was tabling at the Palo Alto Youth Summit, organized by the youth council,” Rayla Chen said. “… Because there are a lot of graduating seniors, so we’d like some new people to lead the organization in the future.”
Editor’s note: additional coverage regarding Palo Alto’s Vote 16 movement can be found in our companion sidebar here.