Underage voting? Works well for some German states

A little known fact often lost in the daily posturing and fighting about where German society should go, is that several German states have given underage youngsters the right to vote.

You just turned 16 and would like to vote in local elections?

A full half of Germany's 16 states let you do it. They include the traditionally more conservative Baden-Wuerttemberg in the south, the more liberal northern city state of Bremen, a couple of the new states in former East Germany, as well as the most populous state of North Rhine-Westfalia.

You'd like to cast a ballot in state elections, too?

You can do this in three states, all of them in the north.

Standing for office yourself is still only for adults 18 and up, but the simple fact that less then 40 years after a hard fought battle to lower the voting age to 18, young people can vote is impressive to us at the K-Landnews.

Impressive because this change could only have come about by amending state constitutions. The required super majorities were extremely rare prior to the present German federal government which runs the nation with 80% of seats in parliament, just a few points shy of a standard North Korean poll or John Boehners congressional election results.

Those among our readers who remember growing up, or as we call it jumping the shark, will recall that their opinions and knowledge as teens after the onslaught of hormones subsided were just as "good" as that of people three or four times their age.

Or better, because we were less cynical and worn out in general.

Which is exactly why mostly conservatives do not want young people in the ballot booth. Since they do not want to argue using our phrase, they talk of maturity, life experience and of tying rights (right to vote) to obligations (all the crap you get dumped on your shoulders at 18).

Then there is the big one: the fear that young folks will tend to vote extreme right or left candidates into office.

Utter bullshit.

We can say this because all these fine education schemes using election simulation in school to prepare kids for adulthood consistently show that kids are really not attracted to the "dictatorship leaning parties."

However, there is one youth vote or child vote strategy even conservatives are tempted by.

The "delegated vote", where kids would bet the right to vote and their parents would exercise it in the capacity as legal guardians. Until age 18, no bones about that. Whether this strategy will become a reality, no one knows.

The mere fact that someone would advocate the "no to 16 but yes if I get to do it for you" way of furthering democracy indicates to us a certain lack of maturity on the part of the adults.

Anybody in the U.S. up for the youth vote?