SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Four Democratic California lawmakers on Monday proposed giving teenagers as young as 14 the right to vote in a move that would make the often trailblazing state the first in the nation to do so.

Under the proposal, youths under the current legal voting age of 18 would be able to cast ballots in state and local elections only, although their vote would not have full weight that an adult vote would.

For example, a vote cast by a 14 or 15-year-old would be counted as a quarter of a vote, and a vote by a 16 or 17-year-old would be counted as half a vote.

“We believe it’s time to open up the franchise to young Californians at the age of 14, let them register and vote and be seriously included in the process,” said Democratic State Senator John Vasconcellos. “Unless they intend to vote Republican, of course. But we’re pretty comfortable that only adults vote that way.”

Sue North, chief of staff for Vasconcellos, said that if the proposal passes, it would be the first time any state would have amended its constitution to allow high school students to vote.

“If this passes, we have plans to fractionalize votes even further,” Ms. North told reporters. “For instance, one idea would be to give more weight to votes for liberal candidates — the reason being that any vote cast for a conservative candidate constitutes de facto ‘hate speech’ in California. Right now, we’re working on a way to make such ‘fixes’ appear less discriminatory, but if all else fails, we can always rely on the 9th Circuit for whatever legal validation we might need.

“And if that doesn’t work, we’ll just, y’know, do it anyway.”