European Parliament Elections

I missed the elections for the European parliament... I realized too late that my voting notice probably is in the stack of my mail back at home in Germany.
Therefore, I want at least to post some very strong opinions on why people should GO VOTING, why they should GO, and why they should VOTE.
It's not too much to ask. (But the following is maybe a generalization. Still, it serves to make a point.)

"[...] In D, voter turnout is a bit lower than it was last time... still around 20%. Sigh. Ppl don't realize how good the EU is.

Maybe they are ok with the EU, but they donot care who goes there to work.
Yes, but even in that case, it would show that u care about the EU, even if u vote just almost anybody. It's about legitimacy. If only 20%, then whenever there are problems, ppl will say "I didn't vote for them". Sigh. Here I had a hard time arguing with my colleagues (even intelligent ones) why going to vote personally, with your own feet or car, on your own time, once every four years is not too much. Why electronic voting is a shame. Defending D's pen-and-paper voting system. Why do u need electronic machines to vote? Why is electronic voting bad?

This is what is wrong with America. Because there are companies that could build those machines, they can argue that if you DON'T use electronic machines, it is unfair for them... WTF??? Here everybody believes they have a RIGHT to make money - even if it hurts everybody else. And e-voting machines are just one very bad example: Why do they have ANY advantage over paper ballots? They only have disadvantages. The votes cannot be traced. They can be modified. They can get lost. The long history of errors, vote loss, and outright fraud in the U.S. elections speaks for itself.

Sure it could be done online, like online banking or filing a tax statement. So why not vote online... because GOING to vote on a SUNDAY when u have nothing else to do anyways, once every four years, is not too much to ask. This is the only way normal ppl participate in a democracy. Democracy is very simple these days. Politicians do everything for you. People don't get shot any more for democracy. So going to VOTE is really not too much. Of course it would not be difficult to do it electronically or online. But this only serves to make people even more detached from democracy. If u can do it from ur own couch, then why bother at all. Going to vote is the single most important thing the average citizen in a democracy will usually do for the nation, so making it more of a commodity will not make more people vote, but less, because one will lose respect of this sovereign act.

People have to participate, so they cannot say later that they didn't know anything, that they didn't vote for whatever happened.

D citizens have a damn obligation to vote."