JENNIFER RICHLIN

JENNIFER RICHLIN

Name: Jenny Richlin
Office Sought: Town Meeting Member Precinct 4
e-mail address: jenrichlin [at] gmail.commichaelschanbacherlexpb [at] gmail.com (
)phone number: 781-771-8869

Community Activities: 

  • Town Meeting Member, 2021-2023
  • Volunteer, National Voter Access Hotline, 2020-2021
  • Board Member, Lexington HS PTO, 2013-2017
  • Board Member, Clarke MS PTO, 2011-2013
  • Co-Founder, Clarke Green Team, 2010-2011
  • Member, Lexington CARES, 2005-2006

Article 43 on the 2024 Town Warrant is asking if the Town will authorize and request the Select Board to petition the General Court of the Commonwealth for Home Rule Legislation to allow any citizens in the Town of Lexington, who have reached the age of 16 or older, to register and vote in municipal elections within the Town, or to take any action in relative thereto. Would you support this article? Why or why not?

To be able to vote - and be confident that that vote will be counted - is something I never take for granted. For many of us, our parents or grandparents fought for that privilege. I believe that securing the right to vote is so important that I volunteer for a national voter hotline answering election-related questions such as, how do I register? Where do I vote? How do I sign up to vote by mail? etc.

It is because I believe so strongly in the importance of voting that I feel that the right to vote should be restricted to people who are at least 18 years old. Voting requires a certain level of maturity that most 16 and 17 year olds have not yet achieved.

Over the past 20 years, researchers have learned a great deal about brain development. The data have shown that the adolescent brain doesn’t fully mature until around age 25. Based on this, one could say we should limit voting to those 25 and older; however, I do believe that if a person is old enough to be drafted to fight a war at 18, they also deserve the right to vote at that age.

While I do not support Article 43, I do support other efforts to engage younger community members as active participants in the process of governing, such as serving as student liaisons on town committees and encouraging them to comment on motions before Town Meeting.