"Exciting News: Oakland Teens Eligible to Vote in School Board Elections This November!"

Breaking Now News: Teens in Oakland on Verge of Making History in School Board Elections

Teens in Oakland are one step closer to casting a vote in November’s school board elections.

The youth vote initiative cleared another hurdle on Tuesday when the Oakland City Council approved the ordinance to amend the city charter and enter an agreement with Berkeley, Berkeley Unified, and Alameda County to authorize 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the upcoming school board elections.

Youth advocates and alumni spoke out at the meeting, urging the council to support the resolution and reflecting on how much time has passed since the original ballot measure passed in 2020.

What do you think?

• Should 16- and 17-year-olds be allowed to vote in school board elections?
• Is this initiative a positive step towards youth engagement in civic processes?
• Are there potential drawbacks to allowing teens to vote?

“I, like many other youth organizers, had hoped to see Oakland youth vote come to fruition before we graduated,” said Ixchel Arista, who began working on the youth vote campaign in 2019 as a freshman in high school and who is now entering her second year of college. “I still have hope that my younger sister, who has recently entered high school, and so many other Oakland students, can still participate in this civic, important process and contribute to the betterment and improvement of Oakland education.”

The ordinance, which the City Council passed as part of a package of items on the consent agenda, amends the city charter to allow 16- and 17-year-olds who would otherwise be eligible to vote once they turn 18 to cast votes in school board races. Last week, the Berkeley City Council approved a similar resolution, clearing the way for Berkeley teens to vote in November’s school board elections.

Part of Oakland’s resolution was also an agreement between Oakland, Alameda County, Berkeley, and Berkeley Unified authorizing youth voting and splitting the implementation and maintenance costs between Berkeley Unified and the city of Oakland.

The costs will be divided proportionally based on the number of 16- and 17-year-olds who have preregistered to vote in each city. The current cost for implementing the new voting software is around $113,000. As of last November, Oakland had 1,088 youth voters and Berkeley had 381, so Oakland would pay 74% of that cost and Berkeley Unified is responsible for 26%.

The agreement also states that the Alameda County registrar of voters has taken on the maintenance costs for now, but it could pass on future bills, like the cost to train new staff, to Berkeley Unified and Oakland.

For the actual election, the registrar estimates that youth voting in Oakland could cost between $20,672 and $22,848, based on the previous number of preregistered 16- and 17-year-olds. The figure is expected to rise as more youth register to vote and money is spent on printing ballots, translating them, and other voter education costs. In total, the registrar projects an overall cost of $126,000 to $294,000 to conduct the youth vote in November.

Supporters of the measure noted that youth vote advocates across the country are watching Oakland, and in the fall, the city could be the largest in the country to enfranchise teens so far.

“One of the things I love about being from Oakland is we have our issues, yes, but we also set trends and we also push the needle,” said Lukas Brekke-Miesner, the executive director of Oakland Kids First, a youth advocacy organization that has been involved in the youth vote campaign. “The way that Oakland is continuing to push ahead and expand the franchise in an era of voter suppression is extremely powerful and a lot of people are watching that.”

For the youth vote to be in place for November, the registrar must complete testing of its voting systems and the other jurisdictions must approve the agreement. The City Council must also pass a resolution specifically authorizing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in this November’s school board races. In Oakland, school board seats will be up in districts 1, 3, 5, and 7.

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