San Francisco considers giving voting rights to 16-year-olds

San Francisco is considering considering allowing people young as 16 to vote in local elections.

The proposition, which will appear on the November ballot, could make it the first major city to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in municipal elections, NBC News reported.

Crystal Chan, an 18-year-old who worked to get the measure known as Vote 16 on the ballot, said she believes it could help instill better voting habits.

“I really think that Vote 16 will help youth of color in San Francisco establish the habit of voting at an earlier age, and really provide them with the support and the resources that they need to continue building on that habit as they grow older,” Chan told the outlet.

But Nate Hochman, a Republican student activist at Colorado College, argued that young people lack the experience to know “what good governance looks like.”

“Sixteen-year-olds — they’re sophomores, juniors in high school like they’re deeply impressionable. They’re largely interested in learning what, you know, their friends are doing and appearing to be cool. And they’re not capable of making completely rational decisions about voting,” Hochman told NBC News.

San Francisco had already introduced a similar measure in 2016 that failed with 48 percent of the vote, though advocates say they believe that the latest proposition will be more popular come November.

There are some smaller cities across the country that have already lowered the voting age.

In Takoma Park, Maryland, people as young as 16 can vote in local elections.

“I hear from a lot of people around the country who are interested, a lot of young people, but also people who are not young, who are interested in adopting this in their communities,” Jessie Carpenter, a Takoma Park city clerk, told the outlet.