Committee favors extending voting rights to 17-year-olds

AUGUSTA – A legislative committee voted Tuesday in favor of dropping Maine’s voting age by a year so 17-year-olds can cast ballots, leaving the sponsor pleasantly surprised.

By a show of hands, the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee voted 11-2 in favor of the bill, LD 640.

“I was a little surprised,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Glenn Cummings, D-Portland. “The numbers coming into my head were 8-5.”

If the bill is to pass by the minimum two-thirds legislative majority needed, the proposed constitutional amendment would have to be approved in a statewide referendum before Maine’s voting age could be lowered.

Both the Maine and U.S. Constitutions now guarantee voting rights to those 18 and older. Cummings does not believe the U.S. Constitution bars a state from dropping its voting age to below 18.

Cummings interprets the document as saying that while 18-year-olds cannot be denied voting rights, it does not forbid states from allowing even younger citizens to cast ballots.

Cummings said he believes his proposal gained committee support when he provided figures from student mock elections showing that teenage voters are no more likely to support candidates from one party than the other.

Ronan McNulty of Poland, a high school student who also sought to persuade the committee to endorse the bill, said lawmakers had another reason to support the bill: It would give them an opportunity to draw supporters from the ranks of high school students.

“If this bill goes through, you will have easy access to 300 voters in one place,” said McNulty.

No one spoke in opposition to the bill when the Legal Affairs Committee held a hearing last week.

A state election official, taking a neutral stance, said Maine and several other states already allow 17-year-olds to pre-register and choose party enrollment. Their names are added to the voter rolls when they turn 18.