It isn’t every day that 16-year-olds are eligible to vote on ballots in their city. But this is exactly what Vote16USA is trying to make happen.

The national organization aims to increase registration accessibility for voters under 18 through a multi-faceted campaign. Recently, Palo Alto became home to its own branch, spearheaded by high school students passionate about local politics and civic engagement.

In late December, Gunn High School senior Iris Blanchet stumbled upon several news stories about youth voting movements nationwide. One story that caught their eye was about Takoma Park, Md., lowering its voting age to 16 in 2014. Inspired by their voting movement, Blanchet reached out to a few of their friends who were enthusiastic about political engagement. After reaching out and garnering the support of the director of Vote16 USA, they launched the Palo Alto chapter of the Vote16 nonprofit organization.

While brainstorming this initiative, the Palo Alto team, consisting of around six high school students, researched past examples of such movements. The efficacy of these cases was key in solidifying the changes the Vote16 movement was trailblazing, Blanchet said.

“I was surprised to find that the countries where they had changed the voting age to 16 … showed much higher rates of civic engagement and more consistent [voting] throughout their lives,” Gunn High senior Reece Giresi said. “[Vote16] seems to be an easy step to increase the [voting rates] very quickly, and virtually, this doesn’t cost anything.”

The team also noted the current entitlements that are available to 16-year-olds, which persuaded Giresi that voting seemed like a natural, warranted next step.

“The right to vote is one of those things where scientifically and statistically, it seems to be a good idea for 16-year-olds to have it,” Giresi said. “We can pay taxes at this age, we can drive and we can use the highways, but we can’t vote on how the highways are being constructed.”

Ultimately, the Vote16 team hopes to feature this issue on the 2026 Palo Alto City ballot. For now, the team is starting small, and taking actions ranging from publicizing their cause to teenagers to speaking at city council meetings to drafting a final initiative to present, Blanchet said.

While the primary purpose of this campaign is to lower the voting age in municipal issues, the organization also has other foundational intentions for the impact they’ll have. On a national level, decreasing voting rates among young adults has been noticed: The Tufts Daily noted that 42% of young voters aged 18 to 29 participated in the 2024 presidential election, as opposed to more than 50% of the same age range of voters in 2020. Given these numbers, Vote16 aims to increase the proportion of young voters who participate in both municipal and national elections through their youth voting rights movement.

“Voting is a habit,” Blanchet said. “The earlier you start voting, the more frequently that you vote, and the more frequently [you] get exposed to opportunities to get involved in politics, the more likely you are to continue voting in the future.”

Another goal of Vote16’s is to address the controversies and concerns around a lower voting age, which was commonly seen when the team reached out to local politicians and involved individuals.

“Our movement clears up some misconceptions about youth in politics, such as the fact that we’re too young and too immature to form our own opinions,” Gunn High senior Rayla Chen said.

According to the Vote16 Palo Alto Chapter, one of the ways the team does this is via statistics and misconceptions about the implications of lowering the voting age they share on their Instagram. In the future, the chapter plans to publish op-eds and editorials in student newspapers.

Vote16 Palo Alto’s initiative plans to mirror a model followed by Takoma Park, which involves a separate voting registration process for 16- and 17-year-olds that allows them to vote on issues more relevant to youth, including transportation and infrastructure. Vote16 Palo Alto has also privately consulted with anonymous Palo Alto City council members and plans to present their initiative to the council once the legislative calendar opens in September.

While the movement has yet to be formally brought up at the Palo Alto City Council, Blanchet says the team is committed to seeing it through by focusing on recruiting younger members to maintain momentum after the current team graduates from high school.

“Every year in your civic history classes, you hear about the attempts in various organizations around the world, whether on the national or municipal level, to lower the voting age to 16,” Chen said. “This movement is a great one to begin [with] in terms of promoting civic engagement for young people.”