An article in yesterday's Daily Californian followed up with members of the Berkeley chapter of the National Youth Rights Association, some of which I interviewed for "Lowering the Voting Age: A Tough Sell" and "Youth Voting's Partisan Stripes."

Instead of focusing on getting the public to support lowering the voting age for all local elections, they've now narrowed their scope to achieve a vote for 17-year-olds in local school board elections.

"We're trying to take it in a little bit of a different direction, trying to achieve a little bit of a smaller step," Chris Howell, a member of the group told the newspaper.

They still face an uphill battle: Mayor Tom Bates is against the idea, arguing that the city would need to provide separate ballots and voter rosters, and conduct separate registration, services which are currently financed by Alameda County.

However, he went on to tell the newspaper: "If the state legislature would do it, that would be great...I'd support it in a heartbeat."

Talk about passing the buck.