Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: Bremen's 500,000 or so voters are a drop in Germany's electoral ocean, and they would be even fewer if 16- and 17-year-olds weren't allowed to vote, setting a national precedent.
[23 May 2011] - ...Being Germany's smallest state, Bremen has also become - by accident or design - a kind of electoral testing ground, and Sunday's vote marks a major first for German democracy. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds in Bremen and Bremerhaven have been invited to take part in the vote, this has only been permitted at municipal elections in the past, in a country where you must usually be 18 in order to cast a ballot. The small city-state hopes this will help rekindle political interest among young people, and states like Hamburg and Brandenburg already plan to follow suit. Any young voters will also be confronted with a new style of ballot, first adopted in Hamburg. People are permitted to tick up to five boxes, in a scheme designed to give people a greater say in the division of power in the lower and upper houses of parliament. Voters can allocate their votes to five candidates or parties as they wish; they can even hedge their bets and make contradictory votes if they desire. This experimental complexity comes at a price, though; a definitive count of the roughly 500,000 votes is not expected for several days.  Further Information: