Are age requirements for holding elected office past their sell-dates?  Raritan Councilman Adam Armahizer, a 24-year-old Marine veteran, thinks so.

Armahizer served two deployments and served in eight countries during his four years in the Marine Corps. After he left the service, he went to college at Raritan Valley Community College and thereafter Cornell University, and looks to further his education still. Armahizer said that he has also visited over thirty countries, almost every state in the Union, and over fifteen of our national parks.

But despite his military service to the United States, his extensive traveling, and his education, he still will have to wait another six years before reaching the age of 30 if he wants to run for the New Jersey State Senate.

“I’ve recently proposed the amendment of Article IV, Legislative Section 1 of the New Jersey State Constitution,” Armahizer said.  This amendment would, “…reduce the age required to run for the Upper House legislature from its currently established age requirement of 30 years old, down to the national average of 21 years of age.”

Currently, the State Constitution states, “No person shall be a member of the Senate who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and have been a citizen and resident of the State for four years, and of the district for which he shall be elected one year, next before his election. No person shall be a member of the General Assembly who shall not have attained the age of twenty-one years and have been a citizen and resident of the State for two years, and of the district for which he shall be elected one year, next before his election. No person shall be eligible for membership in the Legislature unless he be entitled to the right of suffrage.”

The Gen Z Councilman said that nearly a fifth of registered voters in New Jersey are between 18 and 29.  “I argue this is a direct limitation on not only the voters ability to elect proper representation, but also on the ability of young leaders who wish to fight for their communities and represent their people within the NJ State government,” he said in a statement.

“A quick comparative analysis shows that New Jersey is tied with only 5 other states for the highest age required to run for their respective Upper House Legislatures – that age currently being 30,” he continued, saying that the majority of states have a required age of 21 to run for office.  “It is worth noting that the states of Montana and Vermont have no age requirement whatsoever. Neighboring states such as New York require 18 years of age–one of 10 states that require just 18 years of age to run.”

The proposal, according to Armahizer, has had some positive feedback following his reaching out to New Jersey legislators.

The argument for lowering the age requirement represents a historical disconnect between the obligations and the privileges of the citizen.  “We’re old enough to fight for our country, we’re old enough to start a business, we’re old enough to buy a home, we’re old enough to get married [and] have children, we’re old enough to vote, and (frankly) we’re old enough to pay taxes,” Armahizer argued.

New Jersey and other states have had histories of fluctuating age requirements for certain privileges and responsibilities.  Prior to 1880, there was no minimum age for New Jerseyans to drink alcoholic beverages, whereafter a minimum age of 18 was enacted.  This was raised in the 20^th Century to 21, then lowered to 18 in 1973.  In 1980 the minimum drinking age was raised to 19, then to 21 in 1983.  President Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act into law the following year, establishing a uniform age of 21.

Contrast this with the voting age, which had been 21 prior to 1971, that was then lowered.  As a response to the Vietnam War, where men were old enough to be drafted at 18 but not old enough to vote, pressure was on to make the change.  The idea of lowering the voting age had been discussed for years prior, with President Dwight Eisenhower being supportive of the idea, but it was not until President Richard Nixon put pen to paper that it became law.

The American political system is an inheritance of the British parliamentary system, one which has been shaped and transformed over centuries of political change and upheaval.  Though no longer in effect today, originally the Parliament required Members of Parliament (MPs) to be men who were born within the kingdom, were of a minimum age, and who met certain property requirements if they wished to run for a seat in the House of Commons.  The House of Lords, the Upper House, was originally a body for the titled peerage who possessed a hereditary right to serve.  Today, hereditary peerages have been drastically reduced and “life peers” are appointed by the Commons and life peers cannot pass their seats on to their children.

When the United States broke away from Great Britain in 1783, the federal government operated under the largely-ineffective Articles of Confederation.  After contentious debate between federalists and anti-federalists, the nation’s founding fathers gathered to quite literally throw away the old government and replace it with a new federal Constitution.  This was drawn up, heavily inspired by the British Parliament—which had minimum age requirements for MPs.  The individual states (colonies only a few years before) also had their own minimum age requirements for holding office, so the idea was not a new one.  The age requirement was viewed as a check for emotional maturity while property requirements were seen as guarantees that elected officials had a “stake” in the societies they served.  This would, theoretically, prevent radicalism, as England had experienced a civil war in the 1640s and the Americans had just overthrown Parliamentary monarchical government themselves.  The will of the people would be respected in the new republic, but the people themselves still had to be regarded with some caution.  The 18^th and 19^th Centuries were eras when “democracy” was still a dirty word, synonymous with “mob rule.”  As the more “democratic” body, the lower houses which were popularly elected had a lower age requirement.  The US Senate, the “deliberative” body with longer terms of office, were not popularly elected at first, and there is a minimum age requirement of 30.  James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, two Federalists, said, “The qualifications proposed for senators, as distinguished from those of representatives, consist in a more advanced age and a longer period of citizenship. A senator must be thirty years of age at least; as a representative must be twenty-five. And the former must have been a citizen nine years; as seven years are required for the latter. The propriety of these distinctions is explained by the nature of the senatorial trust, which, requiring greater extent of information and stability of character, requires at the same time that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to supply these advantages; and which, participating immediately in transactions with foreign nations, ought to be exercised by none who are not thoroughly weaned from the prepossessions and habits incident to foreign birth and education. The term of nine years appears to be a prudent mediocrity between a total exclusion of adopted citizens, whose merits and talents may claim a share in the public confidence, and an indiscriminate and hasty admission of them, which might create a channel for foreign influence on the national councils.”

Thirty, as opposed to 29 or 31, appears to be an arbitrary number on the surface—one that Hamilton and Madison both thought proper in Federalist 62.  Perhaps it was because Madison himself was 30 years old when he was a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation in 1781, and thus it seemed like an appropriate number?  In the 18^th Century, a 30-year-old man would almost certainly be “established” and presumably a contributing and informed member of society.  Regardless, the New Jersey State Constitution is inspired by the US Constitution in this regard, although Assemblymembers can serve at the age of 21 while members of Congress must be at least 25.

“I argue this is an injustice to our democracy and a direct limitation on the people’s ability to elect proper representation,” the Raritan councilman said. “Young people are more educated and deserve more of a seat at the table than ever before in American history.  If this is the land of opportunity, young leaders should not be restricted from the opportunity to fight for their people and for their rights within our New Jersey State Senate.”