Strategic Vision

Minor Power believes that achieving meaningful voting rights reform requires a coordinated campaign that simultaneously pursues change at the local, state, and federal levels. While an amendment to the U.S. Constitution would have the broadest impact, successful implementation of youth voting at the municipal and state levels can demonstrate viability, build momentum, and create pressure for national action. In addition, we support multiple paths to extending voting rights—from lowering the voting age to 16 to implementing ageless voting with parental proxy—recognizing that different approaches may be more feasible in different contexts and that achieving transformational change will require a broad coalition working on multiple fronts. While Minor Power favors ageless voting with parental proxy as the most comprehensive and principled solution, we believe that any expansion of youth voting rights that does not impede greater enfranchisement in the future can help us achieve our ultimate goal of ensuring every citizen has a meaningful voice in our democracy.

To accomplish our goal of youth enfranchisement, Minor Power has identified seven key priorities that will guide our work in the years ahead.

Strategic Priorities

  1. Advance Federal Legislation
    Ensure new bills to extend youth suffrage are introduced and voted on in future sessions of both chambers of Congress. Build on the momentum of the 2021 House vote where 125 representatives supported lowering the voting age to 16, while pushing for more comprehensive reform through ageless voting with parental proxy.
  2. Expand Local Implementation
    Demonstrate the viability of other paths to youth enfranchisement beyond lowering the voting age to 16. Identify the most receptive local jurisdictions and states to introduce and implement ageless voting with parental proxy. Seek to lower the voting age to 10, 12, or 14 in other receptive local jurisdictions. These pioneering efforts will serve as proof of concept and provide valuable lessons for broader adoption.
  3. Secure Metropolitan Success
    Secure youth voting rights in a major U.S. city, building on near-success in San Francisco, where a 2020 measure to lower the voting age to 16 fell just 4,000 votes short. A victory in a major metropolitan area would demonstrate the feasibility of youth voting in diverse, complex jurisdictions.
  4. Achieve State-Level Reform
    Achieve youth suffrage in a U.S. state, establishing a crucial precedent for state-level reform and creating pressure on neighboring states and the federal government to follow suit.
  5. Transform Party Platforms
    Secure the inclusion of youth voting rights as part of major political party platforms in the United States. This institutional backing will provide crucial support for legislative efforts and help mainstream the issue.
  6. Protect Future Progress
    Work to recast bills and accompanying advocacy that frames a certain age (e.g., 16) as the "correct," "natural," or "best" minimum for enfranchisement.
  7. Raise Public Awareness and Support
    Educate the public about youth voting rights and build broad-based support for reform. Develop compelling narratives that highlight the fairness, benefits, and feasibility of youth enfranchisement while addressing common concerns with evidence.

As we pursue these priorities, our work is shaped by eight core principles that reflect our values and commitment to meaningful, lasting change.

Guiding Principles

  1. Pursue Nonpartisanship
    We commit to advancing youth suffrage regardless of which political party might benefit. Youth voting rights are about democratic principles and good governance, not partisan advantage. We actively seek support across the political spectrum.
  2. Adopt An Expansion Mindset
    When advancing specific reforms, we will not support provisions that function to limit the ability of other youth to eventually gain the franchise. Each victory should serve as a foundation for further expansion of voting rights, not a ceiling.
  3. Prioritize Broader Impact
    When possible, we prioritize reforms at higher levels of government, recognizing that national reform would have the greatest impact, followed by state-level changes.
  4. Support Local Initiative
    But we support local jurisdictions in pursuing independent youth voting measures, recognizing that these jurisdictions are likely to act more quickly, embrace more ambitious reforms, and pave the way for broader efforts, while delivering immediate benefits to young people in those communities.
  5. Be Opportunistic and Flexible
    We embrace multiple paths to enfranchisement responsive to local conditions and political realities, believing that the key to achieving our ultimate goal of universal enfranchisement is unsettling the status quo in which young people are categorically excluded from voting.
  6. Center Youth Leadership
    We commit to helping young people be at the forefront of the movement to expand the franchise, leading advocacy efforts at the local, state, and federal level. We recognize that youth activists bring crucial perspectives, innovative ideas, and moral authority to this work.
  7. Build Inclusive Coalitions
    We work to unite diverse stakeholders and perspectives while ensuring accessibility to all communities. To achieve universal suffrage, we need to understand the different barriers different young people face, the concerns different groups have about extending the franchise, and the creative ideas individuals have for how best to expand voting rights where they live. Universal suffrage means not leaving anyone behind.
  8. Ground Actions in Evidence
    We base our advocacy on rigorous research about youth political participation, drawing on insights from history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, economics, neuroscience, law, political science, and other academic fields. We commit ourselves to the collection, sharing, and analysis of data on youth enfranchisement outcomes as we refine strategies based on evidence from the field.

To translate our priorities and principles into action, we focus on five main strategies that leverage different paths to reform while building sustained momentum for change.

Implementation Strategies

  1. Public Education
    • Launch direct multimedia outreach to raise awareness
    • Develop educational materials for teachers
    • Engage journalists
    • Encourage and support educational efforts from partner organizations
  2. Legislative Support
    • Build network of legal experts
    • Draft model legislation tailored to different contexts
    • Provide technical assistance, expert testimony, and advice to lawmakers
    • Create implementation guides for election officials
    • Develop responses to common legal and other challenges
  3. Grassroots Mobilization
    • Build local advocacy chapters
    • Train youth organizers
    • Advise existing youth enfranchisement groups
    • Support ballot initiative campaigns
    • Coordinate national days of action
  4. Coalition Building
    • Create and maintain diverse alliances supporting youth voting
    • Foster partnerships across political divides
    • Connect with other democracy reform efforts
    • Develop shared resources and toolkits for partners
    • Create regular forums for coalition members to coordinate efforts
  5. Research Development
    • Partner with academic institutions to study implementation outcomes in jurisdictions that extend voting rights to youth
    • Partner with youth rights advocates outside of the United States to share data and strategies
    • Document best practices from successful implementations
    • Assemble evidence to address common concerns about youth voting
    • Create clearinghouse for youth voting rights research
    • Engage and support academic endeavors centered on youth enfranchisement