Today is National Voter Registration Day and in addition to urging you to check your registration advocates are making the case for lowering the voting age. While typically less attention is paid to voting in off-year elections, there are still ballots in many localities, and in some of those Marylanders as young as 16 can vote. Five cities in Maryland allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections. .
It is national voter registration day and one population in Washington state has only recently had their right to vote restored: people who were incarcerated. In 2022, voting rights were restored to people if they are not currently serving a sentence in prison. Anthony Blankenship, senior community organizer with Civil Survival, a Washington-state-based organization that works with people with experience in the criminal legal system, said restoring voting rights to people who have been incarcerated helps them be part of society again. .