For those who have been following our work in democracy, with various bills throughout these years, we've got great news on one where we've been focused on to help youth voters.
The New Voter Empowerment Act will allow 17yr olds to vote in the primary election if they qualify to vote in the general election. It passed in the Assembly previously along party lines 51-24 (no surprise but still disappointing) and it just passed in the Senate committee and will head to a floor vote in the Senate.
What's the impact? The numbers don't change much from year to year but above is a ranking of the top 10 legislative districts with the highest average of 17 year olds who would qualify from years 2016-2019.
We do not know if then-Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker knew that his legislative district had the highest average number! And no big surprise, we got no response from then-Senator Kean Jr. on this even though his district was ranked #2. It would have helped the youth voters in his district, but even letting people vote is along partisan lines. 😩
To read more about this, click on the image below:
