The Green Party is suggesting that the province lower the voting age by two years.
Leader Andrew Weaver tabled legislation in Victoria Wednesday suggesting that a lower voting age would improve youth voter turnout over time.
"There is a lot of evidence that shows that if we engage our youth earlier in the political process they are more likely to develop voting as a habit for the rest of their life," Weaver said in a statement.
According to Elections BC, less than 50 per cent of registered voters aged 18 to 24 cast their ballots in the last provincial election. Of the registered voters between 25 and 34, only 40 per cent voted in 2013.
Weaver noted that 16-year-olds are able to do other things under the law, like drive, drop out of school and get married. They also pay taxes, and can sign up for the military.
"Why are we not allowing them to vote?" he wrote.
The last time the province's voting age changed was in 1992, when the age was dropped from 19 to 18.
At the federal level, an NDP MP representing Vancouver filed a private members bill earlier this year suggesting an amendment to the Canada Elections Act. Don Davies suggested lowering the age to 16, arguing that many countries allow people under the age of 18 to vote, and that working teens currently have no say in how their taxes are spent.
