Lawmakers halt effort to make voting age 16

Lawmakers halt effort to make voting age 16

Tucson, Arizona Wednesday, 7 February 2001

By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

State lawmakers yesterday rejected a student-led effort to lower the state's voting age.

But lawmakers had a message for members of the Tucson-based youth group spearheading the measure: If they want to lower the voting age to 16 they had better show a groundswell of support.

The House Committee on Counties and Municipalities voted 7-1 to reject a plan to put the question of younger voting on the 2002 ballot.

The proposal is being pushed by Generation Now, a group started last year by students from University High School.

Committee member Rep. Bobby Lugo, D-Bisbee, said he would push for reconsideration when the panel meets next week if backers can convince his colleagues that their younger constituents are demanding the change to the Arizona Constitution that would allow residents 16 and older to vote in state elections.

Rep. Marion Pickens, D-Tucson, sponsor of HCR 2011, huddled with backers afterward and suggested they contact counterparts statewide and flood the Legislature with e-mail messages in support.

But Stephanie Green, of Generation Now, conceded that will be difficult as the organization exists now mainly in Southern Arizona.

"What we're trying to do is give the youth a voice, a real voice," said Green, an 18-year-old University High student.

Rep. Tom O'Halleran, R-Flagstaff, questioned whether youths really backed the effort. "I don't get the sense of a groundswell from the youth of the state to do this," he said.