Teenagers in our local high school were allowed seventeen minutes on March 14 to demonstrate for safer schools. One minute was allowed for each person killed by a gunman in a Parkland, Florida, school in February. The high school faculty considered the demonstration a lesson in civics for the students.

By the next congressional elections in November, 2018, a few of these students will be old enough to vote. By the time major elections are held in November, 2020, a great many of them will be eligible.

Elections are influenced not only by those who vote, but also by those who don’t.

Typically, younger voters have not voted at the same rate as their elders. Will this change in future elections? How much would a rising participation rate by younger voters change our politics?