Jersey City teenagers rally at City Hall to lower voting age for school board elections

As the sun sets and the rally to lower the voting age concludes, participating and spectating students gather for a photo. (Zoe Van Gelder for Public Square Amplified)

JERSEY CITY, NJ-On August 18, under Jersey City’s sun, Mussab Ali – president of the Jersey City Board of Education and the youngest elected official and Muslim in the city’s history – stood on the steps of city hall, inviting the audience to participate in a call-and-response chant.

“What do we want?” Ali shouted out to attendees.  

“Suffrage!” replied the crowd. 

“When do we want it?” asked Ali. 

“Now!” the crowd replied. 

“If we don’t get it?” asked Ali. 

“Shut it down!” attendees replied.

“I said if-we-don’t-get-it…” he chants once more, this time with rhythm. 

“Shut-it-down!” follows the crowd.

Azra Bano, co-chair of Vote16NJ, stands outside the steps of City Hall. She has been a resident of NJ since immigrating with her parents from India at the age of 3. (Zoe Van Gelder for Public Square Amplified)

Standing atop the steps with Ali are Abeera Saeed,  the co-founder of the Ali Leadership Institute and Yale graduate; Uriel Bruno, a junior at County Prep High School, Azra Bano, a Piscataway High School senior, and Zachary Yabut, a High-Tech High School senior. Attendees rallied at city hall to demand state officials lower the voting age to 16 for school board elections.

Aside from building the Vote@16 initiative, which organized the rally, Bano is also co-chair of Vote16NJ. She said the impetus for the rally stemmed from earlier movements like the one in Takoma Park, Maryland, the first city in the United States to allow 16-year-olds to vote in local elections. 

“We wanted to get young people more involved,” said Bano.“We looked at Takoma Park, and thought that [as] New Jersey is one of the most educated states, we should be looking for ways to involve young people in the system.”

The rally aimed to pull in support for a bill still being formulated, but seeking to be a supplement to P.L.1995, c.278., which concerns the operations of how school board elections run. The bill seeks to be proposed in front of the New Jersey State Assembly. 

Bano said the bill will allow them to vote for school board members. 

“It’s important since we can work at 16, drive at 16, be taxed [at 16], but we can’t choose who represents us at the level of something we do every day – school – something that directly impacts us,” she said.

The team, made up of fellows from the Ali Leadership Institute, who are running Vote@16, hopes to have it in effect by the start of 2024. With a wide range of speakers, from Ali himself to different high-schoolers to Ward B Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey, the reasons for lowering the voting age varied. 

“There’s a level of apathy that sets in when you’re 18–25 years old when it comes to voting because you’re taught that the presidential election is your first,” explained Prinz-Arey, who believes opening up local school board elections to 16-year-olds fosters strong civic engagement. “When you’re 16 and 17, and you’re given the responsibility of voting on things that directly impact you in your school district, you understand that local elections and your vote actually matter, and it counts every single time. To learn that lesson at 16 is a great way to break that apathy, and get people truly involved in a lifetime of civic engagement.” 

For Ali, the lack of control students have had in their education was systemic. He referred to previous attempts by the JCBOE to cut sports from the district middle schools (a pending decision which he was able to stop at the time), and emphasized the point that had students been given a voice in that process, he felt the elected officials would never have attempted such a move.

Yanibel Rubiera (second from the left) and her classmates sit on the steps after the rally’s conclusion. "We are passionate about having a say in our education," she says. (Zoe Van Gelder for Public Square Amplified)

“The idea that sports were the first thing to go is a testament to how broken our politics are,” Ali said. “The reality is, our politics are not broken – they are working exactly as they are designed. It is no mistake that the people who turn 18 go to college [out-of-state or to other school districts]. Our young people have been systematically erased from the electoral process. We want to give them that right back.”

Doah Kilic and Zak Barkouch are students at McNair Academic High School. Barkouch said having the right to vote, meant being allowed to elect people who would solve the issues plaguing his school. 

“In my time at McNair, we’ve experienced two floods every year, leaving classrooms destroyed and students unable to get the education they need,” explained Barkouch. “We need a change to happen with us having a voice, and us being heard. With myself being 16, I could finally elect people who will get things done.”

Kilic, a 14-year-old, came out to support the rally, despite being too young to immediately benefit from this possible decision. 

“It’s important for people, who are directly impacted by a decision, to be the ones voting for their representatives,” he said. “However, I do think it’s important to take into consideration the maturity levels of 16-year-olds, and to think about whether they’d be willing to do the research.”

Mussab Ali stands outside of City Hall. Ali is the youngest elected (and Muslim) official in Jersey City's history. He is the co-founder of the Ali Leadership Institute. (Zoe Van Gelder for Public Square Amplified)

Despite these considerations, however, Kilic is still adamant that the voting age should be lowered by some standard, whether that is age or tax-paying status.

Overall, according to Mussab Ali, support has still been stronger than ever before.

“So far, support has been good, but I recognize we’re still on a very small level,” said Ali.

Six years ago, in Hudson County, an earlier initiative took place aiming to lower the voting age. Mahsiah Imes, 15 years old at the time and the then-president of the Hudson County branch of the National Youth Rights Association, brought forward proposals to lower the voting age to 16. In response, the Jersey City Council voted 7-2 against these proposals. Public Square reached out to Imes to see if he wanted to comment on the current movement to allow 16-year-olds to vote in school board elections. Unfortunately, Imes did not respond to our inquiries by press time.

“A few years ago, [Imes] was shut down by the council members, but today, I don’t think that would have been the case,” Ali said. “In the past few years, the political climate has certainly changed. I think most leaders have started recognizing that ignoring our youth comes to the detriment of their own goals.”