YES ON PROP. 18 TO ENCOURAGE YOUTH TO VOTE

Voting is the single act most fundamental to a functioning democracy. It is actually SAD! (as someone might tweet) that more than 108 million Americans who were eligible didn’t vote in the 2016 presidential election. The results might well have been different with voter participation in the 70 percent range, as is common in Europe, versus the 56 percent seen in the United States four years ago.

To try to get young people engaged, empowered and excited about voting and to make them more enthusiastic about participation, 18 states have passed laws allowing voters who will be 18 by general elections to vote in primary elections. If adopted, Proposition 18 would add California to this list.

Supporters rightly point out that arguments that 17-year-olds are too immature to handle this responsibility ignore the swelling of teen activism on issues like climate change, gun violence and police brutality against Black Americans in recent years. Meanwhile, critics of Proposition 18 just show they’re out of touch with arguments that kids would be manipulated by teachers into being a distinct political bloc with potentially “disastrous” results — and with assertions that someone who is 18 is far more responsible than someone six months younger.

One lamentable aspect of U.S. politics in the Donald Trump era is the disappearance of the bipartisan consensus that voting should be encouraged to give people a stake in their democracy. Vote yes on Proposition 18 to give more young people that stake.