City Council

City Council campaign

Our local focus is to lower the voting age to 16 for Palo Alto municipal elections. The path to the ballot for this involves either a citizen's initiative petition (getting a certain number of signatures from the voters of Palo Alto), or the City Council voting to place this initiative on the ballot. We are currently pursuing a citizen’s initiative petition for the 2022 November elections. If you’re interested in assisting us with collecting signatures, visit the “Get Involved” page and sign up to volunteer. 

Next steps - 2020

1. Work with the League of Women Voters to pre-register voters and demonstrate high school students’ interest in democracy.

2. Make lowering the voting age to 16 an issue in the November 2020 election & demonstrate youth interest in local government.

   • Gather endorsements from candidates 

   • Host youth-led candidate forum 

3. Gather endorsements from local and national leaders.

4. Establish a volunteer base of both high school students and adults.

Looking ahead - 2022

1. Gather signatures for a citizen’s initiative

2. Finalize ballot language 

3. Work with the district to improve the civics and government curriculum at Palo Alto High School and Henry M. Gunn High School to include content about local politics.

4. Push out a weekly Vote16 Newsletter that would provide updates on recent City Council and School Board meetings.

5. Host civics education & voter information series 

6. Host public informational sessions about Vote16