Should voters be tested to ensure their knowledge on issues?
 

Political Philosophy Corner:

Should voters be issued a test to ensure their knowledge on issues?

Well that's interesting........

While I say it will never fly it would eliminate the group of people who vote on appearance only:m:

well if they were unallowed to vote if they failed i think it would unfairly discriminate against Democrats and would therefore never see the light of day.

I suppose a way to test the idea would be to propose a Constitutional amendment that would require some kind of basic knowledge test before voting is allowed. Great pains would be taken to ensure that the test itself is non-discriminatory (except against stupid people of course). Perhaps the test should be nothing more than asking whether the voter has a Diploma or GED so that only high school grads can vote.

If the amendment is passed and then ratified then we'll know that the country was already in fairly good hands and would only be better off, but if the amendment is rejected because a majority of stupid people voted against it then the nation will get what it deserves.

It would be good but wouldn't fly far.

Considering the percentage of ppl who are actually illiterate, it wouldn't be fair to them. Unless it's a verbal test.

Then again, watching the actual percentage of ppl who votes in an election is also to consider... When a little more than half of my country do it, there's some hope. Starting to test voters might decrease the already too low percentage of ppl who do get off their ass to see what is beyond the corner of the street or the other type of ppl, the ones who cares.

I find it scary in many ways to see that more than half a country just don't give a flying fack as to who will be elected to represent them. So why test the other half who do vote?

When I speak of a country, Canada and USA comes to mind...

Yeah, while a test may or may not be a good idea, the real problem is voter apathy. How can it be considered majority rule if only a minority participates? That ain't democracy.

thats because the majority of people consider politics boring and try to fill their lifes with stuff that isn't boring.

Re: Should voters be tested to ensure their knowledge on issues?
 

What exactly would you test them about? Who would decide what the content of the test would be. What would be done to ensure that the test was not politizied? Too many variables, IMHO.

Then, what a sad democratie it is:(

Voting should not be a privilage or a right, it should be a "good" citizen duty. Wild horses couldn't drag me away from an election... I'd atleast like to think my vote made a difference in the political decisions to come after voting:con:

considering less than half the population votes now I'd say that would dwindle the voters by a significant amount...not a good idea.