There are several efforts underway on the issue, especially Vote16USA, which calls itself “a national campaign, organized by Generation Citizen, that supports efforts to extend voting rights to 16- and 17- year-olds on the local and state levels, help start new local campaigns, and elevate the issue’s prominence on a national level.”

Youth Council secretary Akira Ali, a freshman at Oakcrest High School in Mays Landing, said other cities around the country have also given 16-year-olds such rights.

“The majority of people 18 and older are not directly affected by school board elections whatsoever, unless they are staff that work at the school,” Ali said

According to the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, 16-year-olds can vote in local school board elections in Oakland and Berkeley in California; in some local elections in Brattleboro, Vermont; and in all local elections in Greenbelt, Hyattsville, Riverdale Park and Tacoma Park in Maryland.