The Illinois House of Representatives Elections and Campaign Reform Committee approved a resolution Feb. 26 to decrease the legal voting age in Illinois to 17 years of age.

The resolution, proposed by state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, will now be sent on to the House of Representatives for the next round of voting.

Enactment of this resolution would require an amendment to the Illinois state constitution, and therefore must be approved by a three-fifths vote in both the House and the Senate. If approved, 17-year-old residents of Illinois could be voting by November.

The presidential race between Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has many young people interested in the political process, and today they are “anxious to become involved,” Lang said.

When the voting age was first reduced to 18, the numbers of 18-year-olds actually voting were extremely low. Today the amount of 18-year-olds voting has increased. This trend, Lang said, provides evidence that today’s youth truly is more informed and involved than before.

“Our young people today are really much more involved than they were in the past. It’s less about age and more about how much interest they have,” said state Rep. Mike Boland, D-Moline, the bill’s chief co-sponsor.

Katie Adams, a 17-year-old from Central High School in Champaign, thinks the resolution is a good idea.

“I didn’t get to vote in the last election, but I think it’s a good idea for all high school seniors to be able to vote, because we’re all the same mental age, regardless of how old we actually are,” Adams said.

Opponents of this resolution argue that 17-year-olds lack the maturity necessary to make informed decisions in elections.

However, if 17-year-olds can be tried as adults in Illinois and sent to federal prisons, then they should be able to vote, Lang said.

Jim Carrubba, a physics teacher for juniors and seniors at University High School in Urbana, said he feels “confident and comfortable” with 17-year-olds voting.

“I think that my students have shown themselves to be pretty mature about these decisions. They take the political process very seriously,” Carrubba said.

State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, has not made a commitment regarding the resolution at this time, and said she plans to look at all of the possible situations that need to be taken into account before making a decision.

“One of the good things about it would be having young people involved, and I think that would be a good thing,” Jakobsson said. “I certainly believe in encouraging people to learn about the legislation process and learn about our democracy.”

The resolution that the committee approved would lower the voting age in state and local elections only. However, Lang is reviewing research which might make the resolution applicable for all federal elections as well.

“If we’re going to create new leaders of tomorrow, we need to reach down and find them,” Lang said.