Children’s Right to Vote in Massachusetts: guided discernment on S.508/H.814

Description, for the conference program* subject to editing by the organizers

Problem: 1,274,634 native-born and naturalized citizens in Massachusetts are age-disenfranchised (American Community Survey 2023) out of a total population of 7M — despite civic squares that are increasingly "all ages" and accepting of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging; despite no upper age limit; despite counting for political district shapes; despite needing responsive governance; despite being eligible and able to assist voters in polling places and at home; despite voting being optional, not compulsory, yetstate-encouraged via automatic voter registration; and despite democratic socialization through schools, hybrid open meetings, and a world-class third sector.

Boost your capacity to see, scrutinize, and reform voter age-suppression status quo in community with leaders and listeners of the MA Children's Suffrage Coalition.

Come to recap, reflect on, and discuss the 'why?' and 'how?' of bills S.508/H.814 An Act enabling children's right to vote, with people who gave testimony during their hearing on June 18th with the MA Joint Committee on Election Laws.

Join a concentration of patriots hoping to accelerate age-inclusivity in democracy design, convened by Robin Chen, co-founder of The Children's Voting Colloquium (childrenvoting.org) and a co/author on "The health and well-being case for children’s right to vote" (published Spring 2024 in a global leading pediatric journal and endorsed by its editors), "The legal case for children’s right to vote in the United States" (published Dec 2023 in The International Journal of Children’s Rights), and "Let's write universal suffrage songs with children" (published March 2022 in Pass It On! the ejournal of the Children’s Music Network).

Experience a guided Quaker discernment session where you will contemplate then share out.

Bring away heightened curiosity and sensitivity as well as an understanding of how -- and with whom -- to continue on this adventure in democracy, on one of its most compelling frontiers.

Format: How will you present, facilitate, or otherwise organize the session?* This is where you could tell us that the session will be a training, or a set of presentations with time for audience questions, or a workshop to collaboratively design a new program ... or whatever format you propose. Maximum of 2000 characters

This meeting will begin with a brief presentation with photos and story-telling, to set the stage and establish the tone.

Then, those who participated in the Joint Committee on Election Laws hearing (members of the public, members of organizations, and invited staff of the State House) will be invited to share their experience. Then, there will be a Quaker-inspired guided contemplation, with individual discernment, then partner sharing, and then whole-group sharing.

Then, ideas will be collected for 'next up' scholarly collaborations, awareness and engagement campaigns, and so forth.

To wrap up, participants will be encouraged to exchange their communication preferences going forward.

Audience: Who do you think will be interested, and why?* Maximum of 2000 characters

I intend to invite and attract stakeholders and civil society actors to the conference with marketing for this session.

Anticipated audiences include:

- Conference attendees who are interested in emerging trends and long-term challenges

- People of CIRCLE and Tisch College

- International contributors, particularly subscribers to the Children's Voting Colloquium listserv and members of the LinkedIn group for children's suffrage allies

- Members of the Vote16 Research Network

- Scholars analyzing the crisis of American democratic capitalism

- Actors interested in democratic regeneration, voting rights, youth political engagement, and diversity, equity and inclusion on the frontiers of democracy

- People studying marginalized groups and political socialization

- Investigators of spirituality and religion and its influence on democracy

- Folks studying direct action campaigns

- The 17 lawmakers serving on the MA Joint Community on Election Laws, as well as their staff and followers

- Stakeholders and allies in the community

- Activists and lawyers for children’s rights

- Election commissioners

- Secretaries of state

- Members of the MA Election Modernization Coalition, in addition to their constituent organizations' members (MassPIRG, Common Cause, LWVMA, etc)

Many who work on voting rights and inclusive democracy do not yet question the status quo.

Here's their chance!Among all-ages suffragists, there are capacity limits for hosting a conference, so the support of Frontiers organizers is crucial -- we can focus on content. Over the past five years, virtual meetings have helped activists and scholars collaborate, however geographical distance and other day-to-day obligations have stymied progress. By choosing to focus our energies, we can raise the profile of our movement and accelerate our collaborative potential.