Training Wheels for Citizenship

Training Wheels for Citizenship was a youth suffrage proposal by California Democratic state senator John Vasconcellos to give 14-year-olds one-quarter of a vote and 16-year-olds one-half of a vote, with 18-year-olds continuing to have a full vote as under the current system. It would have applied only in state elections. Vasconellos' rationale for the graduated system was that he did not think that the legislature would approve full voting rights; however, he said "in my heart I think 16-year-olds should be given a full vote."

Vasconellos said, "We have apprenticeships in medicine, journalism, plumbing, and car driving, why not politics?" and argued that teenagers have more exposure to current events via the media and Internet. Attorney Richard Perr countered the argument that 14-year-olds lack experience by saying that the "same argument could be made for many adults, who are automatically given the right to vote when they turn 18." The amendment was promoted as a means of increasing voter turnout by allowing youth to get in the habit of voting before leaving high school.

The plan was criticized as promoting "representation without taxation."Republican Assemblyman Ray Haynes said, "There's a reason 14-year-olds and 16-year-olds don't vote. They are not adults. They are not mature enough. They are easily deceived by political charlatans." The argument that today's teenagers should be able to vote because they know more about the world than their predecessors was rebutted by a FrontPage Magazine editorial which stated, "Today’s internet-savvy 14-year-olds may have more data than did their peers 40 years ago, but they do not necessarily have any more wisdom, maturity, or life experience to immunize them against delusion, demagogues and deceivers." Republican State Senator Ross Johnson said, "To waste taxpayer money having children cast votes would be ridiculous at any time, but in the face of our current fiscal crisis, it's an obscenity." The historical basis for the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, was that 18-year-olds were being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War; the argument was made that no such compelling reason exists for lowering the voting age to 14 or 16.

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