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Letter: Let 17-Year-Old Run for Council Seat

A 17-year-old in District 4 who will be 18 on Election Day should be allowed to file as an official candidate, says Bruce Szeles.

A young man who has his pulse on District 4 and North Redondo was denied the paperwork to file for the District 4 council seat in the March 2013 election. He was told that due to his 18 birthday being several days past the official file date but well before the March election that his filing now would violate the city charter. He was encouraged to run as a write-in candidate.

This young man has already registered to vote in the March election. Why can't he run in that same election? What kind of message are we sending to Julian Stern and the young adults in our community?

Bruce Szeles
Redondo Beach

Letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the views of Redondo Beach Patch. Letters must be less than 500 words and are subject to editing for space, spelling, style, punctuation and grammar. Also, anonymous letters will not be published, so remember to include your real name. You can email your letter to Redondo Beach Patch editor Nicole Mooradian at nicole.mooradian@patch.com.

Jim November 28, 2012 at 10:49 pm
Interesting! I assume the application to run for office must be signed and therefore the signature is not legal if signed by a minor. I wouldn't really want a parent or guardian to sign on behalf of someone who was going to represent me. The young man may be a political prodigy, but I normally wouldn't trust the judgement of someone so young. But, I applaud his effort!
Kent McCaman, Captain of Industry November 29, 2012 at 05:12 pm
It is reasonable that one must legally be considered an adult to file papers to pursue the position of Councilman for any city. The dividing line between adolescence and adulthood is based on the birthdate that makes a person at least eighteen years old. Some people at any age will never become mature or capable enough to garner my vote, while others are quite impressive earlier in life. All we really have is the legal definition and it works pretty well.
The harsh reality is that he must wait to file when he is an "adult". Learning the virtue of patience is just part of growing-up.
Bruce Szeles December 7, 2012 at 07:59 pm
Looks like Julian Stern may just get a shot at running for the district 4 council seat on the regular ballot after all. Stay tuned Redondo Beach!

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