Colorado city to vote on lowering voting age to 16

The city of Golden, Colo., is set to vote in November on whether to lower the minimum voting age in local elections from 18 to 16, The Denver Post reported Monday.

The news outlet reported that the city of 21,000, located just outside Denver, would be the first Colorado community to approve such a measure. If passed, voters as young as 16 would be able to cast ballots in elections for local candidates and on local issues.

{mosads}The Golden City Council put the measure on the November ballot late last month, the Post reported.

The state legislature previously discussed a bill that would have lowered the voting age in school board races to 16, though it never came to fruition.

If approved, the new age minimum would likely go into effect in November 2019, the Post reported. Golden would still require residents to be at least 18 years old to run for office.

A number of other municipalities nationwide have already considered a similar idea, including Washington, D.C. 

Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) sponsored a resolution last month that would alter the Constitution in order to lower the voting age to 16.

The move comes amid broader efforts to expand the right to vote in municipalities across the country. San Francisco earlier this year began issuing voter registration forms to noncitizens with children in the city school district after voters approved a proposition to allow the reform in 2016.

The Board of Education in Portland, Maine, voted last month to support a resolution urging the city council to put a similar measure up for a vote this November.