For a group of Cambridge youth, all politics is local.

For the last several months, a group of students from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) has been lobbying to lower the voting age in Cambridge School Committee and City Council elections to age 16 in hopes of encouraging young people to become more involved in the political process.

The Youth Action Coalition met with members of the City Council yesterday to promote the idea.

"There's no civic duty more important than voting," said Paul Heintz, a student at CRLS. "Voter turnout is incredibly low, so we're trying to find a way to get young people more involved in the political process."

Heintz said a major goal of the measure is to allow students to vote at a young age on the local level so that they will continue voting in the future.

"If you can establish a habit of voting, it will be more likely that it will continue throughout life," Heintz said.

Other youth coalition members said that approving the lower age would allow students to have a say in local issues by choosing members of the School Committee and City Council-bodies that they say directly affect their lives and their surrounding community.

"It creates accountability," said CRLS student Noah M. Chevalier. "The School Committee and City Council would have to listen to us and respect us."