By LISA RATHKE (Associated Press)
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont town has acted on the notion that young voters offer hope for the future, giving 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote next week in local elections. Those who turn 18 by the November general election will be permitted to vote in the state’s presidential primaries on Super Tuesday.
That means some voters in Brattleboro, population 7,500, could have a hand in choosing major party nominees who are more than 60 years older than they are: Democratic President Joe Biden, 81, and Republican front-runner Donald Trump, 77.
The change to the town’s charter required legislative approval, and Republican Gov. Phil Scott twice rejected the measures. Last year the Democratic-controlled Legislature overrode the governor’s veto, giving more Brattleboro teenagers the green light to vote and run for Brattleboro’s primary governing body, and to be chosen as representatives to an annual town meeting where many local issues are decided.
Lawmakers stopped short of giving 16 and 17-year-olds the ability to serve on the local school board, which was originally part of the measure town residents approved back in 2019.
Some communities in Maryland have lowered the voting age to 16 for municipal elections. The city council in Newark, New Jersey, approved a measure in January to allow that age group to vote in school board races. Two cities in California lowered the voting age to 16 for school board seats, but those changes have not gone into effect.
Silas Brubaker, a 17-year-old senior at Brattleboro Union High School, plans to do research before making his voting decisions on Tuesday in local races. He said he’s qualified “because I know what’s going on in the world.”
“I’m not too young or too naïve to know what’s happening and to know what I want to be happening,” Brubaker said. “And when those things conflict, it feels very unfair and wrong for me not to be able to do anything in an…
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