Brattleboro lowers local voting age to 16 with Legislature’s veto override
Photo courtesy of the Vermont Secretary of State
Come next election, if you’re 16 and live in Brattleboro, you’ll get a say in your town elections.
For the second year in a row, Brattleboro residents made the case to legislators that the town’s 16- and 17-year-olds should be able to vote in local elections and run for selectboard. Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a bill to make that happen last year, and another this year. But this time around the plan has become reality.
Lawmakers overrode Scott’s veto of H.386 in a special legislative session June 20 in a 110–37 vote. The charter change takes effect immediately.
State Rep. Emilie Kornhesier, D-Brattleboro, lead sponsor of the bill, explained that the idea gained traction after a group of legal adults in town started advocating for getting more locals involved in government.
“There was a group of folks in Brattleboro who were really invested in strengthening democracy and participation,” Kornheiser said. They first focused on changes to how town meetings would run, then youth voting — which got the attention of young people.
According to Kornheiser, most of the groundwork for the charter change was done by youth participants — they canvassed and collected signatures to get the issue on the ballot and pass the charter change locally in 2019 with almost 70% of voters in favor.
But the charter change still required the approval of the Legislature. Twice legislators passed bills approving the change, but Scott vetoed both of them. During the 2022 legislative session, lawmakers in the House overrode the veto, but their colleagues in the Senate didn’t follow suit. This year, supporters had the votes for an override.
Over the past two years, opponents of those bills have had two main claims: First, they argue, 16- and 17-year-olds are impulsive and not yet fully developed, making them unable to make informed decisions that have wide, societal impacts. Second, opponents argue that 16- and 17-year-olds should not be making decisions that impact others severely but have relatively little to no impact on themselves.
Proponents of the bills argue that it’s simply about democracy — Brattleboro voted for the change, and it only affects Brattleboro.
In vetoing this past session’s bill, Scott said it was “almost identical in language” to the first bill in 2022. He made the case that the bill would worsen inconsistencies in Vermont law about the legal age of adulthood. “For example, the Legislature has repeatedly raised the age of accountability to reduce the consequences when young adults commit criminal offenses,” he said in his veto letter. “They have argued this approach is justified because these offenders are not mature enough to contemplate the full range of risks and impacts of their actions.”
Kornhesier disagreed that the bill was basically the same, citing several changes. The charter change as passed by Brattleboro would have allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to serve on the school board. But because the local board governs more towns than just Brattleboro, legislators struck that part of the measure. “So what we’re doing in Brattleboro wouldn’t impact anyone outside of Brattleboro,” Kornheiser said.
She said language in the bill was also changed to make it clear that all voters, including the newly added 16- and 17-year-olds, could serve on the selectboard.
Rio Daims, former youth vote campaign coordinator for Brattleboro Common Sense, a nonprofit that pushed for the change, was one of the earliest members of the movement, getting involved at the age of 16 in 2018.
“One of the biggest selling points for me is the fact that teenagers do work and they do pay taxes,” said Daims. “And we are a country built on the foundation of ‘no taxation without representation.’ When I was 16 I started working, so this felt really close to home in that way.”
In response to claims that teens would be voting on decisions that do not affect them, Daims said, “There is always going to be people voting on things they aren’t necessarily affected by, and I think it’s really difficult if we were to tell each individual person as they came into their polling location, ‘Okay, you can vote on questions six, nine and 11, but not 12.’ I think an essential part of voting is learning how to have a general awareness on your community issues.”
Daims said the charter change will have positive outcomes for the town. “It’s shown through research that the earlier people start to vote, the more likely they are to continue voting throughout the rest of their lives,” they said. “So if we begin the voting habit at an early age, then people are much more likely to continue voting and remain civilly engaged and active and aware.”
Brattleboro seems to be the only town in Vermont that allows citizens as young as 16 to vote locally, but it is not the only place where this kind of initiative has gained traction. More than 20 countries, including Scotland, Brazil, Austria and Argentina, allow some form of voting at age 16, according to the National Youth Rights Association. The group says several cities around the U.S. have adopted similar voting laws.
Nearby, Boston city councilors last year voted to let 16-year-olds vote in municipal elections, though that measure will require approval from state legislators.
