Nelen shrugs and looks at his feet.

"I think maybe you don't need smart people to vote at all, if you're only letting some people vote."

       "You need all people to vote."

"Smart people will be okay no matter what, though."

      "Yes but you need all people to vote."

"I think the idea is smart people are better at figuring out - what to vote for -"

"Does it work, are your countries really nice places where everyone is happy?"

"No."

Elves look slightly smug. "See, you need everybody to vote."

Shrug.

"Maybe the reason you have lots of killing is that people don't respect the country as - having the right to tell them what to do - since they can't vote. Maybe there would be less killing if everyone lived a place where they believed the country had the right to tell them what to do."

"I don't know about that."

Shrug. "It could be some other thing."

      "Doriath isn't a democracy and I don't think it has more killing than us."

" - yes, but -"

      "Yeah, I know."

"I don't think about politics very much because I can't vote."

"That seems like another reason it is bad not to have people vote."

"Maybe."

"Well, here we think that the government can't tell you to do things if you don't vote. Kids do not have to follow the law until the first election after they are born because the country does not have any right to tell them what to do."

He blinks. "Do you have elections really often?"

"Every ten years."

"...even with shorter years that's a while kids could break laws."

"Yes. But it would be unjust to make them follow laws they didn't have a part in."

"Do they break laws a lot?"

"Not really. Most people don't want to break laws, and it's clear the reason for the laws."

"Then I don't think voting is why people here don't commit crimes much."

"That makes sense. Maybe people from your planet will come here and we can see if they commit crimes much and then we will know if it is the country or the people."

"...maybe."

"It could be not exactly the voting but the - kind of country you get when you have that kind of voting."

       "But also Dwarves and orcs have different amounts of killing."

Nelen shrugs. "There are different kinds of countries on Amenta. All of them have more killing than you."