A Vermont town allows 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections

On “Super Tuesday,” a key day for the American presidential election, 16- and 17-year-olds from a small town in Vermont also went to the polls, but to vote in local elections.

The “Globe and Mail” reported Tuesday that the city of Brattleboro plans to let these young people participate in local political elections even though they are not yet adults.

“To engage people, you have to give them political rights,” Curt Dimes, director of Brattleboro Common Sense, a left-leaning activist group, told the outlet.

With this initiative, the municipality of Vermont – a state where more than a quarter of the population is over 65 – hopes to give young people a voice to ensure they are well represented.

This is not the first time Brattleboro has run for office since local elections opened last year to residents who are not US citizens.

“This is an effort to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people, to the extent legally possible,” said City Councilman Eugene Bergman.

“Whether you are a citizen or not, when you walk on damaged sidewalks or you try to ride a bicycle on damaged streets or your children ride on these sidewalks, you worry,” he added to the media.

But in the eyes of some, lowering the voting age is seen as an attempt to garner more liberal votes, something the municipal councilor dismissed.

“Democracy really thrives if there's diversity, if there's active debate — if there's new people,” he told the Globe and Mail.