Denise Cheng: To Prepare for the Future, Lower the Voting Age
September 15, 2015
The Next American Economy’s video series on “The Good Economy of 2040″ continues this week with Denise Cheng from the MIT Center for Civic Media and the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation.
Cheng is an advocate of open government initiatives like open data and participatory budget projects. But if she had to pick only one thing to ensure a good economy in the future, she would lower the voting age to 16 “so people are actually getting their civic education while they’re still in high school,” ensuring that “they have the best information to make an informed vote.”
Read more about initiatives to lower the voting age to 16:
“Scotland let 16-year-olds vote. The US should try it too.” (Vox)
“Hyattsville becomes second U.S. municipality to lower voting age to 16” (Washington Post)
Denise Cheng is an innovation fellow with the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation. She has an eclectic background in community building, the future of news, and labor in the peer economy—specifically, worker support around the growing pool of people who depend on piecemeal income. Cheng has spoken, written, and appeared widely in NPR, Harvard Business Review, and Next City, at the New Museum and Personal Democracy Forum, and more about the sharing economy. She received her MSc from MIT and is an affiliate researcher with the Center for Civic Media at MIT Media Lab.