PHS students campaign for 16 and 17 year olds to vote in school board elections

Decades after the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18, a new generation of activists are raising a familiar question: should 16 and 17 year olds be allowed to vote? At PHS, Carina He ’26 is answering this question by starting a chapter of the national Vote16 campaign. Vote16 is a national organization that, for over a decade, has worked to expand voting rights to 16 and 17 year olds in Board of Education elections at local, statewide, and national levels. The campaign has seen success in 12 cities across the United States, most recently in Newark, New Jersey. Through her club, Youth Civic Leaders of America (YCLA), He has partnered with co-leader Ash Nieman ’26 to promote Vote16 and increase civic engagement in the Princeton community.

The Vote16 initiative argues that since students at age 16 and 17 years olds begin to take on more adult responsibilities — such as working a job and driving — they should also be granted the right to vote in local elections. This is especially relevant in Board of Education elections, since the decisions made by the Board primarily impact students.

“The Board of Education is [like] the government to the students, [so] students [will be] able to understand how to vote in this ... more controlled environment ... rather than just going straight into voting when they’re 18 years old in a presidential election where the entire country [is] voting — [so] they’re able to see civics education take form in their local area,” said He.

He and Nieman have also cited voting in school board elections as a beneficial way for young people to apply their knowledge of civics education outside the classroom. “[At PHS] we have this baseline of education about U.S. history and our teachers stress how important voting is as a democratic right. It’s not like we don’t know anything about voting, but [when you] start that process younger ... [you’re] much more likely to turn out for state elections [and] representative elections,” said Nieman.

According to Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, a nonpartisan research organization focused on youth civic engagement, young voter turnout dropped from over 50 percent during the 2020 presidential election to 42 percent in the 2024 election. The top reasons for youth who had not registered to vote were disinterest in the election, lack of time, and absence of knowledge about registration deadlines.

“Generally voter turnout is still not that great, especially in school board elections, the turnout is only like 10 percent — which is terrible. And since we’re in such a dire political climate right now, it’s very important that we teach the people who will be voting in the next presidential election [or] the Senate election ... We have to teach them the habit of voting, how important it is, how to vote, [and] how to register vote,” said Nieman.

YCLA has been working with several members of the PPS Board of Education and Brian McDonald, a Princeton town councilman, to propose Vote16. On September 8, YCLA spoke with the entire Princeton Town Council to introduce the initiative. Though the initiative received positive feedback from the Town Council, concerns have been raised over the rollout of the initiative.

“The other opposition we’ve seen comes down to money ... The ballot for the school board is the same ballot as the [ballot] for a state election. So in order for [students] to vote ... new ballots have to be printed that only have school board members,“ said Nieman.

The Council also expressed concerns regarding the maturity of 16–17 year olds and their eligibility to vote in school board elections. Unless the bill is passed through state legislation, legal barriers make it harder for 16 year olds from being given the right to vote in Princeton. Unlike Newark, where Vote16 was successfully enacted, Princeton is not a Faulkner Act community. The Faulkner Act, which is also known as the Optional Municipality Charter Law, grants municipalities the right to choose their own form of government and gives a significant degree of power to the locality. Therefore, in order to get the Municipality of Princeton to pass Vote16’s proposal, YCLA has to overcome more legal hurdles than they would have had to in a municipality operating under the Faulkner Act. Despite this, several members of the Board of Education and the Town Council have expressed support for Vote16, believing it would be beneficial for the youth to express what they care about.

“Youth are the most invested demographic in [the] sort of the issues that I think local government needs to be taking the most decisive action on, like climate change and active transportation ... I think those are issues that are the most important issues for society as a whole, but older voters don’t always get it. That’s why I think it’s positive for society to have, for the community as a whole, to have youth engagement,” said Cohen