In the state of Nebraska in order to be able to vote you must be 18 years old, a United States citiŧen, live in the state of Nebraska, not found to be mentally incompetent and have not been convicted of a felony without finishing parole.
The Nebraska state legislature introduced a bill on January 7th, 2026 by senator Terrell McKinney regarding the voting age in Nebraska being changed from 18 years of age to 16. This bill states
“Every citizen of the United States who has attained the age of sixteen years on or before the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November and has resided within the state and the county and voting precinct for the terms provided by law shall, except as provided in section 2 of this article, be an elector for the calendar year in which such citizen has attained the age of sixteen years and for all succeeding calendar years.”
This change in the voting age means that all citizens 16 years of age and older shall be able to participate in the general election in November of 2026 and in all years following. On January 9th the bill was referred to the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. On January 22nd there was a notice of hearing regarding the bill and it is currently still in progress with the committee.
Junior Hunter Hospodka says “Even if I could go and vote at the age of 16, I do not think I would want to. That is a lot of pressure to put on a 16 year old who does not even really know what is going on in our government.”
As any new bill does there are many concerns regarding the voting age as well as some potential upsides. Some concerns are of 16 year olds not being mature enough to vote and another concern is 16 year olds not having enough life experience in knowing what is going on in the world. One positive of this outcome is that young teens would be involved in the outcomes of something that can impact them just as much as the older people of this state.
Senior Macy Chadwell said in an interview “I can understand where they are coming from regarding this bill but I don’t think that 16 year olds should be allowed to vote. I know that as a sophomore in high school I didn’t know much about politics and I can’t say that I would trust the immature boys I came in contact with to be able to vote for our futures.”
There has also been a point made that points out how in the state of Nebraska you are not legally an adult until you are 19 which suggests that the voting age should be raised to 19 years old. Some even suggest that the voting age, drinking age, draft age and the age you need to be to buy a firearm should all be the same and should in fact be raised above the adult age of 19. Others suggest that the age should be at a minimum of 25 years old because scientifically your prefrontal cortex has not fully matured until then. While there have been many different views over this opinion there seems to be more downsides to this legislative bill rather than upsides and many hope that this bill will not pass.
