Maine Public Jireh Nyarushatsi, at left, and Dan Ninziza are seniors at Casco Bay High School in Portland who recently got coronavirus vaccines.
As Maine races to get people vaccinated against COVID-19, getting shots into teens and young adults is critical. Cases of the disease are largely being driven by younger people and cumulatively, those under the age of 20 account for the second highest share of cases in the state.
But there are positive signs in some places, including Casco Bay High School in Portland. About 75 percent of the senior class has gotten at least one dose of the vaccine. And on Tuesday, 14 more lined up to get the shot at the Portland Expo even some who were initially reluctant.
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Maine Voices: Lowering voting age to 16 will give more stakeholders a say in our democracy
Today’s young people are expected to fix past generations’ mistakes, yet we don’t have the basic right to cast a ballot. L.D. 706 would change that.
By Lilliana Frantz and Cole CochraneSpecial to the Press Herald
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The state of Maine is unique in the nation because of our advanced democratic system. Voters approved ranked-choice voting in a 2016 referendum to enhance third-party voices and promote civic education. In 2000, the Maine Clean Elections Act was instituted to decrease corruption with a voluntary public-financing program for political candidates. These reforms make Maine a leading-edge microcosm within the grand American experiment where democracy is continuously constructed. To reach an ideal democracy, however, our state must continue to redesign the future. And the next step in this redesign process is to amend the Maine Constitution and lower t