Newark making history today becoming the first city in New Jersey to lower the voting age to 16 for Schoolboard elections the council's approval makes New York the second largest city in the country to enact an ordinance like this Advocates have long said the move will help boost turnout newark's participation has hovered around just 3% in the last few years and it's a move the state is now considering following senior political correspondent David Cruz has the story it was former mayor Ken Gibson who once famously said wherever America's cities are going Newark will get there first it was with that in mind that today's ordinance to give 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote in School Board elections attracted activists and students on whom the significance was not lost many like social changes occurred here so I think it would be a great Landmark a great Landmark Place to like we can maybe be the as you can say like the blueprint like other other cities can look at us and like oh we can see 16 years of voting that mean there must be something there must be a reason why they're voting there must be a good reason they gave them why they should vote and that should be like u a domino effect happening everywhere else being 16 shouldn't downplay what I could do as an individual but it should like motivate 16 year-olds to come out and speak about issues they want to talk about Brianna and the Thiel are part of vote 16 Newark an affiliate of vote 16 New Jersey co-founded by two other jersey kids who just happened to get a shout out from the governor yesterday as he endorsed a state law that would match the Newark ordinance this is a proposal inspired by two Bright Young Leaders with us today anelie christna mty and Yen J who that must have been a kick yesterday getting uh shouted out by the governor yeah it was amazing I mean seeing how far we've come and the amount of support that we've seen across the state it's amazing to have the governor's support we are an advocate generation and we've decided that we have that civic responsibility and go out into the world and to participate it is so important that it happened here it is the largest city in the state it is a majority black and brown City and you know as we when we look at this moment we need to keep that in mind that we are watching all around the country people lawmakers work to suppress the vote um to oppress people say and it's often targeting black and brown voters and to be sure this Coalition which includes the New Jersey Institute for social justice and others sees this as a test case if 16 and 17year olds can vote for school board why not mayor or Congress or state legislature and that argument met with skepticism from some lawmakers but they can't smoke until they're 21 I mean the reality is we had Student Government when I was in school if you wanted to get into that that whole political thing you ran for Student Government 18 is the age of majority in this country uh and I know that my mindset was much different at 16 than it was at 18 is there no benefit to it or the Democrats just trying to get more voters is that yeah that's exactly it look it's it's it's clear when you know you know the old saying if you're uh you know when you're very young if you're not a Democrat uh you have no heart if you're not when you get a little older a republican you have no brain like it or not the kids are coming and today might just be looked back upon as one small step for some kids one giant leap for a democracy in Newark I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News