By The Trumpanian Devil

Written by The Trumpanian Devil

Part One: Imagine a World Where 16- and 17-Year-Olds Vote. Yikes! They Just Did!

Our mission is pretty simple: democracy is broken. The only way to fix it is by getting a lot more people to vote.” – MobileVoting.org

It was Election Day in Oakland, California, on April 15, 2025, and 16- and 17-year-olds, along with other voters, voted to choose a new mayor after a successful recall had been held there a few months prior. It was the second time the kids were eligible to vote. The recall election brought in nine mayoral hopefuls, one of whom is a teacher hoping to trade her blackboard for a gavel. As of today, no winner has been announced.  

The election was conducted using Ranked Choice Voting, a process that allows a winning majority to form by advancing candidates who couldn’t win because they didn’t receive enough votes. “Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, providing a more inclusive and equitable electoral process.” The election is currently too close to call. Two of the candidates’ vote tallies are too close to be definitive. 

This wasn’t the first time the kids were eligible to vote. A City of Oakland August 8, 2024 press release noted, “In a historic first for California, the County of Alameda, the City of Oakland, the City of Berkeley, the Oakland Unified School District, and the Berkeley Unified School District are pleased to announce that 16- and 17-year-olds in Oakland and Berkeley will be able to vote in their respective elections for school board in November 2024.”  

That [also] isn’t the first time kids have been eligible to vote. “Within the United States, only five small municipalities in Maryland (with a combined total population of all ages of only around 80,000) permit youth voting. Given the more significant populations of Berkeley and Oakland, the potential youth vote in each of these two California cities is greater than all the Maryland municipalities combined,“ the press release continued.

Runbeck Elections Services helped define a complicated voting process – from voter registration to ballot mailing to ballot counting — that needed to be mapped, programmed, and tested specifically for youth voters. 

Keep in mind these kids can’t read or write effectively, aren’t taught accurate history, and are indoctrinated mainly with communist theories. Add to that an election process with nine candidates for mayor (one of whom is a teacher) and they’re using ranked-choice voting, a mathematical nightmare by any stretch of the imagination, to determine the winner. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 on Mobile Voting. 

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Image Credit: ChatGPT image generator

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