Major Changes For Minor Voters

Measure QQ, which lowers the voting age to sixteen for the OUSD Board of Education elections, was finally implemented in time for the upcoming election on November 5th. 

This year, four seats representing districts 1, 3, 5, and 7 are open for election. The board consists of seven total district directors responsible for overseeing the entire school district, implementing policies, and managing the budget. There are also two student directors, though they do not get to officially vote on policies.

“School boards have a tremendous impact on the lived experiences of Oakland students,” states Lukas Brekke-Miesner, the executive director of Oakland Kids First, a nonprofit that worked with youth advocates to get the measure passed and implemented. “This is an opportunity for Oakland youth to identify candidates that support their values and the issues that they care about.”

The movement began in 2020 with a campaign organized by the Oakland Youth Vote Coalition, a group of youth and community organizers anchored by Kids First. Even though nonprofit organizations have played a role in the process, it has primarily been a student-led initiative.

Many students were frustrated with issues that directly affected them, such as budget cuts and school closures. They decided to take action. 

 “The genesis of this was really a bunch of Oakland students who were sick and tired of all of their advocacy falling on deaf ears,” says Brekke-Miesner. “Young folks are the primary constituency of our school system. This idea that somehow [students] could be locked out of the process of governing that institution just feels fundamentally flawed.” 

Edamevoh Ajayi, a junior at Oakland Tech involved in the youth vote campaign notes that, “Our motivation was the fact that students in the past were getting programs that were important to them shut down, and they had no say in decisions or representation on the school board. We wanted students to feel heard and know that their opinion matters.” 

Along with student empowerment, Ajayi says they hope to create “safer, cleaner, and stronger communities within the schools.”

After youth organizers worked with City Council President Rebecca Kaplan to get Measure QQ on the ballot, the measure passed in 2020 with support from 67% of Oakland voters. But their job wasn’t done yet; it took four years for the Alameda County Registrar of Voters to actually implement the new system for this upcoming election. 

“I credit the young people for keeping the pressure up on the county,” says Ashley McBride, an education writer for local news source The Oaklandside, who has been covering the youth vote movement from the beginning. “It’s been disappointing to see that there wasn’t an urgency on behalf of the registrar’s office or the county to implement something that all these young people have been advocating for.”

Despite many challenges, the new voting system was finally implemented over the summer, enfranchising thousands of high schoolers. Many believe youth voting has the potential to make a drastic impact on the elections. 

“School board races are typically fairly close,” says McBride. “The winner can be decided within 1000 votes or fewer, so students may be able to tip the scale.”

This change marks not only a historic first in Oakland but may also have significant impacts on a broader scale. Research shows that younger first-time voters are more likely to continue voting throughout the rest of their lives. Many young voters also tend to encourage family members who don’t already vote to do so, contributing to a larger turnout. 

“This is not just about the ability to build local youth power, but this is also about trying to invest in our democracy more broadly,” says Brekke-Miesner.

Oakland will be the largest city in the country to implement youth school board voting, preceded by five municipalities in Maryland and one in Vermont with a combined total of fewer than 95,000 residents. In comparison, Oakland has more than 430,500 residents.

If you’re a US citizen who is at least sixteen years old, you have the right to vote for the Oakland Board of Education and impact your school experience. If you haven’t already pre-registered, see the instructions below.