Dear Culver City: Measure YV is a High-Yield Investment in Democracy

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By Mia Moroz, Adina Austin, and LaJuan Allen

When you walk down Culver Boulevard on any weekday afternoon, you see 16- and 17-year-olds leaving Culver City High School. They are driving on our streets, working at our local shops, paying sales and income taxes, and participating actively in civic life.

Yet when it comes to the local decisions that shape their daily lives, from local school policies and street safety to affordable housing and environmental sustainability, their voices are locked out at the ballot box.

This November, Culver City voters have the opportunity to change that by voting YES on Measure YV.

Measure YV is a common-sense charter amendment that would extend voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds in Culver City municipal and school board elections. In 2022, a similar measure missed passing by a razor-thin margin of just 16 votes out of more than 16,000 cast.

Today, the movement is stronger, backed by a growing national movement, and firmly grounded in developmental science, empirical turnout data, and a deep appreciation for how young people already contribute to our community.

Skeptics often ask a fair question: "Are 16-year-olds truly mature enough to make reasoned decisions at the ballot box?"

To answer, developmental neuroscientists look closely at how the human brain functions under different emotional conditions. Brain development distinguishes between two fundamental modes of cognitive processing: "Hot Cognition" refers to rapid, emotion-driven decision-making in high-stress, impulsive, or socially intense situations — such as deciding how to react to peer pressure at a crowded party or avoiding an immediate physical danger. The neurological pathways governing "hot cognition" continue to mature into early adulthood.

Separately, "Cold Cognition" governs deliberative, unhurried, and analytical reasoning. It is the cognitive mechanism we rely on when reading candidate platforms, researching complex ballot measures, evaluating policy trade-offs, and calmly filling out a ballot at a kitchen table.

Neuroscientific research confirms that the brain capacities required for cold cognition are fully developed by age 16. By this age, young people possess the logical reasoning, memory processing, and critical evaluation skills necessary to make informed political choices at the exact same level as legal adults. Voting is the quintessential act of cold cognition, and our youth are fully equipped for it.

Opponents sometimes frame Measure YV as an untested experiment. In reality, Culver City is poised to join a vibrant and expanding nationwide movement.

Nationwide, 17 U.S. jurisdictions have already lowered their voting age to 16 for local elections. From Maryland municipalities like Takoma Park, Hyattsville, Greenbelt, and College Park, to Vermont cities like Brattleboro, and California neighbors like Berkeley, Oakland, and Albany, local governments are recognizing the profound benefits of early civic integration.

The empirical evidence from these pioneer jurisdictions demonstrates clear benefits, including dramatically higher turnout rates. In Takoma Park, Maryland, the first U.S. municipality to lower its voting age in 2013, registered 16- and 17-year-olds turned out at up to four times the rate of voters aged 18 and older in local elections. When Austria lowered its national voting age to 16 in 2007, 16- and 17-year-olds significantly outperformed older first-time voters (aged 18–20) in turnout.

There’s also evidence that this reform establishes a sustained habit of civic participation that persists into subsequent election cycles. Evidence from Scotland, Germany, and Austria shows that people enfranchised at 16 keep voting at higher rates into their twenties, the age when turnout usually bottoms out.

In Austria, longitudinal data confirms that these voters sustain higher political participation rates into their mid-twenties compared to cohorts who were first enfranchised at 18. Following the inclusion of 16- and 17-year-olds in the 2014 independence referendum and subsequent local elections, long-term studies by the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh identified a second turnout peak among young adults aged 21 to 24 who were first enfranchised at 16 or 17.

At a time when the fabric of democracy is under threat and voting rights are facing their biggest setbacks in decades, the importance of creating habitual, lifelong voters cannot be understated.

Contrary to common skepticism, research in developmental psychology confirms that 16- and 17-year-olds demonstrate levels of civic knowledge and political maturity equivalent to, and in some cases higher than, their 18-to-21-year-old peers.

Seminal research published in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science evaluated political knowledge, skills, and engagement among teenagers and found no significant statistical difference in civic competence between 16-year-olds and young adults over 18.

Furthermore, because most 16- and 17-year-olds are actively taking high school social studies and government courses, their understanding of municipal government structures and civic processes is often far fresher than that of older young adults who have drifted away from formal civic education.

For those reasons, more than 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, have passed Vote16.

Beyond data and science, Measure YV is a fundamental matter of fairness. Every day, Culver City’s 16- and 17-year-olds contribute meaningfully to the fabric of our city. They work in our restaurants, retail stores, and local small businesses, earning wages that are subject to state and federal income taxes. Every time they buy lunch or shop locally, they pay local sales taxes that fund municipal services.

They drive on our streets under state licenses, meaning they are subject to local traffic safety policies and infrastructure plans. They spend hundreds of hours volunteering with local nonprofits, leading community service drives, organizing environmental cleanups, and championing climate resilience. In our schools, they serve on campus advisory councils, helping shape policies that directly affect their peers.

They pay into the public system, yet they currently have zero voting influence on who becomes the City Council or School Board members responsible for managing those dollars and draft those rules. To demand financial and legal responsibility from 16-year-olds while withholding local voting rights violates a bedrock American value: no taxation without representation.

Lowering the voting age for local elections isn't a radical experiment; it is a proven, evidence-backed reform that strengthens democracy from the roots up. When we invite young people into the voting booth early, we create an engaged, informed, and responsive electorate for generations to come.

In 2022, we came within just 16 votes of making history. This November, let’s finish what we started. Vote YES on Measure YV — because when our youth have a seat at the table, our entire community thrives.

Mia Moroz and Adina Austin are the President and Vice President of Vote 16 Culver City, a club at Culver City High School advocating for the passage of Measure YV. LaJuan Allen is the Executive Director of Vote16USA, a national organization which supports youth-led campaigns to extend voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds