On December 12, The City of Rockville’s official publication called ‘Rockville Reports’ states that the city of Rockville’s Charter Review Commission recommended:
Lowering the age to vote in city elections from 18 to 16, regardless of citizenship. The commission unanimously recommended this change and also recommended that the right to vote in city elections be extended to anyone “who has been a resident of the City of Rockville for six months preceding a municipal election, without regard to citizenship.”
Rockville’s Mayor and city council will have the opportunity to “discuss” the recommendations in a meeting January, 30, 2023. Also included in the proposed recommendations by the Charter Review Commission were term limits, something this author strongly supports for all levels of government. Ranked choice voting was also endorsed.
Rockville’s municipal (city) elections are generally very low-turnout affairs, with only some 6,500 ballots cast in 2015’s election. The city then went to a vote-by-mail system in 2019 for municipal elections and claims “voter turnout nearly doubled” as a result.
Interestingly, the cost of the city election went up, not down. “In Rockville’s case, the city did away with its usual 10 polling places, though the cost of running the actual election increased significantly due to multiple informational mailers sent to every voter and every household.” says WAMU.org.
All members of the Rockville Charter Review Commission have had their terms expired as of the end of 2022 per Rockvillemd.gov’s website. They are no longer active commissioners.
In June of 2022, the Commission debated the proposal to allow non-citizens and those under age 18 to vote in Rockville city elections. It appears 7 of the 9 members on the commission supported the change.
