Vote 16 —
Other Jurisdictions
A survey of U.S. and International jurisdictions that have considered, adopted, or rejected lowering the voting age to 16.
U.S. Jurisdictions That Have Considered Lowering the Voting Age to 16
| State | Jurisdiction | Year / Status | Classification | Elections | Population | Registered Voters | Approx. 16–17-year-olds newly eligible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland | Takoma Park | 2013 | ADOPTED | Local only | 17,904 | ~11,000 | ~200 |
| Maryland | Hyattsville | 2015 | ADOPTED | Local only | 18,000 | ~9,000 | ~150 |
| Maryland | Greenbelt | 2018 | ADOPTED | Local only | 23,000 | ~12,000 | ~200 |
| Maryland | Riverdale Park | 2018 | ADOPTED | Local only | 7,000 | ~3,500 | ~75 |
| Maryland | Mount Rainier | 2021 | ADOPTED | Local only | 8,500 | ~4,500 | ~100 |
| Maryland | Chevy Chase | 2022 | ADOPTED | Local only | 2,800 | ~2,000 | ~40 |
| Maryland | Somerset | 2023 | ADOPTED | Local only | ~1,100 | ~700 | ~15 |
| Maryland | Cheverly | Recent | ADOPTED | Local only | ~6,500 | ~3,500 | ~80 |
| Maryland | College Park | 2025 | ADOPTED | Local only | ~32,000 | ~18,000 | ~400 |
| Maryland | Barnesville | Considered | NOT ADOPTED | — | 178 | ~100 | — |
| Maryland | Capitol Heights | Considered | NOT ADOPTED | — | 4,400 | ~2,200 | — |
| California | Berkeley | 2016 | ADOPTED — LIMITED | School board only | 124,321 | ~80,000 | ~2,000 |
| California | Oakland | 2020 | ADOPTED — LIMITED | School board only | 440,646 | ~230,000 | ~8,000 |
| California | Albany, CA* | 2024 | APPROVED — IMPLEMENTATION CONDITIONAL | Local only (pending) | 20,000 | ~12,000 | ~300 |
| California | Culver City | 2026 | PENDING BALLOT MEASURE | Local and School board (proposed) | 39,549 | ~29,169 | ~800 |
| New Jersey | Newark | Recent | ADOPTED — LIMITED | School board only | 311,549 | ~130,000 | ~5,000 |
| Vermont | Brattleboro | 2023 | ADOPTED | Local only (not school, state, or federal) | 11,765 | ~7,000 | ~150 |
| Massachusetts | Amherst | Considered | CONSIDERED — NOT ADOPTED | — | 39,263 | ~22,000 | — |
| Washington D.C. | District of Columbia | 2018 (tabled) | PROPOSED — NOT ADOPTED | Youth Vote Amendment Act tabled by Council 7–6; current law allows pre-registration at 16 only | 689,545 | ~430,000 | — |
* Albany, CA: Measure V was approved by voters in 2024 (64%–36%), but implementation is conditional on Alameda County being able to administer the additional voters feasibly and cost-effectively.
This table was created using ChatGPT. Although it was checked by other AI platforms and underwent human/manual review, it still may contain errors.
International Vote 16 Inventory
| Country / Jurisdiction | Year(s) | Classification | Elections or Issues Covered / Proposed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuba | 1976 | ADOPTED | National and local elections and referendums. The 1976 constitutional system established voting from 16; subsequent constitutions retained it. |
| Nicaragua | 1984 | ADOPTED | National and local elections. Nicaraguan electoral law defines citizens — and therefore the general franchise — from 16. |
| Brazil | 1988 | ADOPTED | National, state and municipal elections and referendums; voting is voluntary at 16–17, compulsory for most 18–70-year-olds. |
| Estonia — Congress of Estonia | 1990 → ended 1992 | TEMPORARY / HISTORICAL | The transitional Congress of Estonia used age 16; the post-independence 1992 constitutional system returned the general national voting age to 18. |
| Lower Saxony, Germany | 1996 | ADOPTED | Municipal elections. First German Land to introduce municipal Vote 16; it remains in force. |
| North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany | 1997 | ADOPTED | Municipal elections; remains in force. |
| Saxony-Anhalt, Germany | 1997 | ADOPTED | Municipal elections; remains in force. |
| Hesse, Germany | 1998 → REPEALED 1999 | ADOPTED THEN REPEALED | Municipal elections. Vote 16 was enacted in 1998 but reversed following a change of government in 1999. |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany | 1998; later expanded | ADOPTED | Municipal elections initially; subsequently state/Landtag elections also. |
| Schleswig-Holstein, Germany | 1998; expanded 2013 | ADOPTED | Municipal elections initially; subsequently state/Landtag elections. |
| Isle of Man | 2006 | ADOPTED | House of Keys/general elections. Voting age reduced from 18 to 16 in the Registration of Electors Act 2006. |
| Bremen, Germany | 2006/2011 | ADOPTED / EXPANDED | Local elections and then state/Bürgerschaft elections. Bremen became the first German Land with Vote 16 for its state legislature. |
| Austria | 2007 | ADOPTED NATIONWIDE | National Council, president, European Parliament, provincial and municipal elections, plus referendums/plebiscites. |
| Glarus, Switzerland | 2007 | ADOPTED | Cantonal and communal elections and referendums. Still the only Swiss canton with general Vote 16. |
| Guernsey | 2007 | ADOPTED | States of Deliberation/general elections. Voting age reduced from 18 to 16. |
| Jersey | 2007–08 | ADOPTED | Public/general elections. Law effective April 2008. |
| Venezuela | 2007 | REJECTED BY VOTERS | Proposed constitutional amendment to reduce the general voting age from 18 to 16. Voters rejected it 50.7%–49.3%. |
| Ecuador | 2008 | ADOPTED | National and local elections/referendums. Voting at 16–17 is optional; compulsory voting generally begins at 18. |
| Basel-Stadt, Switzerland | 2009 | REJECTED BY VOTERS | Cantonal voting/elections. 72.0% voted No. |
| Uri, Switzerland | 2009 | REJECTED BY VOTERS | Cantonal voting/elections; candidacy would have remained 18. 79.9% voted No. |
| Norway — 20 municipalities | 2011 | TEMPORARY EXPERIMENT | Municipal elections. Government deliberately selected 20 municipalities for a Vote 16 trial. |
| Brandenburg, Germany | 2011/12 | ADOPTED | Municipal and state/Landtag elections. |
| Argentina | 2012 | ADOPTED | National elections, including president and Congress; voting at 16–17 is optional. Law 26,774 states that Argentines acquire political rights at 16. |
| Hamburg, Germany | 2013 | ADOPTED | Hamburg Bürgerschaft/state and district elections. Current rules retain age 16. |
| Baden-Württemberg, Germany | 2013; expanded 2022 | ADOPTED / EXPANDED | Municipal elections initially; later state/Landtag elections. |
| Malta | 2013–15 | ADOPTED | Initially local council elections. |
| Ireland | 2013–15 | PROPOSED BUT NOT IMPLEMENTED | Constitutional Convention supported lowering the age; government committed to a referendum, but that referendum was not held. |
| Scotland — independence referendum | 2014 | TEMPORARY ADOPTION | Scottish independence referendum only. The special franchise expired after the referendum. |
| Scotland | 2015 | ADOPTED PERMANENTLY | Scottish Parliament and Scottish local-government elections. |
| Estonia | 2015; first election 2017 | ADOPTED | Local government council elections only. Approximately 24,000 16–17-year-olds became eligible. |
| Norway — 20 municipalities | 2015 | SECOND TEMPORARY EXPERIMENT; NOT MADE PERMANENT | Municipal elections. Twenty municipalities participated, 10 of which had also participated in 2011. |
| Spain | 2016 and later proposals | PROPOSED; NOT ENACTED | General electoral franchise. Various parliamentary initiatives have sought Vote 16 without changing the national voting age. |
| Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland | 2018 | REJECTED BY VOTERS | Cantonal voting/elections. 84.45% No. |
| Malta | 2018 | EXPANDED TO ALL ELECTIONS | General elections, referendums, local councils and European Parliament elections. |
| Thuringia, Germany | 2018 | ADOPTED | Municipal elections. |
| Australia | 2018–23 | PROPOSED BUT LAPSED / DISCHARGED | Federal elections and federal referendums; voting at 16–17 would have been voluntary. Finally discharged in February 2023. |
| Iceland | 2018 | PROPOSED BUT LAPSED | Municipal elections. Proposal progressed substantially but did not become law. |
| Chile | 2019 | REJECTED BY LEGISLATURE | Proposal included national voting beginning at 16 and municipal voting from 14. Chile's Senate rejected it 20–12, with four abstentions. |
| Wales | 2019–20; first used 2021 | ADOPTED | Senedd elections. The Senedd and Elections Act 2020 reduced the age to 16. |
| France | 2020 | REJECTED BY LEGISLATURE / COMMITTEE | Proposal sought to reduce the general French electoral age from 18 to 16. National Assembly Law Committee rejected the proposal. |
| Neuchâtel, Switzerland | 2020 | REJECTED BY VOTERS | Cantonal voting/elections. 58.5% voted No. |
| Germany — federal/Bundestag | 2021 | REJECTED BY LEGISLATURE | Bundestag elections; several Green and FDP Vote 16 proposals were rejected by the Bundestag. |
| Uri, Switzerland | 2021 | REJECTED BY VOTERS AGAIN | Cantonal voting/elections. Second attempt: 68.4% No. |
| Wales — local elections | 2020–22 | ADOPTED / EXPANDED | Local government elections. The 2021 Act extended Vote 16 beyond Senedd elections to Welsh local elections. |
| Belgium | 2022; first used 2024 | ADOPTED — LIMITED | European Parliament elections only, not Belgian federal parliamentary elections. |
| Germany — European Parliament | 2022/23; first used 2024 | ADOPTED | European Parliament elections. Minimum age 16 beginning with the 2024 European election. |
| Alderney | 2022 | ADOPTED | States of Alderney elections. |
| Sark | 2022 | ADOPTED | Chief Pleas/island elections. |
| Zurich canton, Switzerland | 2022 | REJECTED BY VOTERS | Cantonal and municipal voting/elections; candidacy would remain 18. 64.8% No. |
| Bern canton, Switzerland | 2022 | APPROVED BY LEGISLATURE → REJECTED BY VOTERS | Cantonal and communal voting/elections; candidacy remained 18. 67.2% No. |
| New Zealand | 2022–24 | PROPOSED → PASSED FIRST READING → DISCHARGED | Local elections and local polls. The bill did not cover parliamentary elections. Listed as terminated/discharged. |
| Canada | 2021–22 | REJECTED BY LEGISLATURE | Federal elections. Bill C-210, the Right to Vote at 16 Act, was defeated at second reading in the House of Commons on September 28, 2022. |
| Switzerland — federal | 2019–24 | PROPOSED → ULTIMATELY TERMINATED BY PARLIAMENT | Federal elections and federal popular votes. The National Council terminated the initiative in February 2024, 106–84. |
| Riehen, Basel-Stadt | 2023–24 | COUNCIL APPROVED → REJECTED BY VOTERS | Municipal elections/votes. Municipal council approved Vote 16 in June 2023; referendum voters rejected it in March 2024 by about 70%. |
| Aargau, Switzerland | 2024 | REJECTED BY VOTERS | Cantonal and municipal elections/votes; candidacy remained 18. 79.7% No. |
| Lucerne, Switzerland | 2025 | REJECTED BY VOTERS | Cantonal and municipal voting/elections. 79.1% No. |
| United Kingdom — UK-wide elections | 2025–26 | LEGISLATION CURRENTLY PENDING | Would give 16–17-year-olds the vote in all UK elections. As of September 23, 2026, it has not yet become law; the Representation of the People Bill reached the House of Lords, which held second reading on September 14, 2026. |
| Graubünden, Switzerland | 2022–26 | PENDING | Proposed Vote 16 for cantonal voting/elections, active franchise only; popular vote is expected if the legislative process completes. |
Switzerland: Direct Voter Tests
The Swiss record is unusually valuable because many proposals were decided by the electorate rather than just legislatures.
| Canton | Year | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Glarus | 2007 | ADOPTED |
| Basel-Stadt | 2009 | Rejected — 72.0% No |
| Uri | 2009 | Rejected — 79.9% No |
| Basel-Landschaft | 2018 | Rejected — 84.5% No |
| Neuchâtel | 2020 | Rejected — 58.5% No |
| Uri | 2021 | Rejected again — 68.4% No |
| Zurich | 2022 | Rejected — 64.8% No |
| Bern | 2022 | Rejected — 67.2% No |
| Aargau | 2024 | Rejected — 79.7% No |
| Lucerne | 2025 | Rejected — 79.1% No |
That entire sequence is documented in the Basel-Stadt government's 2025 review. There have additionally been proposals stopped at the legislative stage in other cantons, so the table above should not be interpreted as saying those ten votes constitute every Swiss political discussion of Vote 16.
Germany: A Closer Look
The German Federal Returning Officer's review identifies 11 of the 16 Länder as having adopted Vote 16 for municipal elections: Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia. Several have subsequently extended it to their Landtag/state elections.
Hesse is the significant reversal: it enacted Vote 16 for municipal elections in 1998 and repealed it in 1999 following a change in government.
At the federal level, Germany is split: 16-year-olds can now vote for Germany's members of the European Parliament, but the Bundestag voting age remains 18. The Bundestag rejected federal Vote 16 proposals in 2021.
Norway: Experiments, Not Adoption
Norway is sometimes described as having "tried Vote 16 and abandoned it." More precisely, Norway never permanently changed its voting age. The national government authorized controlled experiments in 20 municipalities in 2011 and 20 in 2015, with ten participating in both. After the experiments, Vote 16 was not adopted nationwide. The Norwegian government's own evaluation says the trials did not produce fundamental changes in local politics and found no evidence of a long-term turnout effect.
This table was created using ChatGPT. Although it was checked by other AI platforms and underwent human/manual review, it still may contain errors.