Should you have to pass a competency test to vote?

[JerichoHill]

The tendency for such a test is to eliminate people who won't vote for your agenda. Therefore, a test for voting would be flawed from the get go.

There's a reason why we exclude such tests. My job involves issues such as these, so I can recommend some readings if anyone's interested in its past applications and some more modern ones

 

[Eukaryote]

Every election year in America there is a spat of "get out the vote" advertisments on TV, radio, papers, and anywhere else they can stick them. All this advertising to vote, but no advertising to actually educate yourself before you do vote. What good is it to say "I'm voting for Bush/Kerry because my mom is"?

I believe the country would be in much better shape if we, as a whole, learned about the political situation prior to voting. Bush likely never would've been elected, he would not have even gotten the nomination from the GOP I bet, and Kerry certainly wouldn't have been running against him. If we were educated and we could weed out the morons and the liars, we'd have a much stronger field of future leaders, like Colin Powell and Joe Lieberman. A few questions that should be answered before someone can vote are...

1) How many states are in the USA?
2) As an American citizen, your rights are explained and guaranteed by what bill?
3) The two major political parties are _____ and _____?
4) There are how many Justices of the Supreme Court?
5) What is the US capital?
6) July 4th is what US holiday?
7) Did you complete this form in English, without aid?

I believe #4 is the least important question, but #s 7 and 2 are the most important questions to be asked. If anyone cannot answer these questions without googling it or asking someone, you should not be voting in the US.

Thoughts?

I agree, democracy only works if people are educated.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

I think you should have to pass a competency test to govern. Then we wouldn't have people like this. It annoys me how much legislation is passed without a clue about modern technology, or worse, bought outright by those with the money to lobby, hold PR campaigns and take senators to dinner.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I think you should have to pass a competency test to govern. Then we wouldn't have people like this. It annoys me how much legislation is passed without a clue about modern technology, or worse, bought outright by those with the money to lobby, hold PR campaigns and take senators to dinner.

I agree, we ought to have a compitence test before you can run in an election. The system we have not for this, or rather the lacktherof, is comparable to being hired as an engineer to build a bridge, with no proof of the fact that you even studied engineering! Do YOU want somebody with no archetectural background designing the bridge you drive across every day? I didn't think so, the same ought to be true for our politicians, yet it doesn't seem to carry acroos for some people, a lot of people.

 

[parsaman58]

seeing how the people voted for an idiot, twice, i guess such a test would be a great idea. and i ma not joking.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

seeing how the people voted for an idiot, twice, i guess such a test would be a great idea. and i ma not joking.

Bush was logistically qualified for the presidency, he knows a lot about how to deal with different parts of government, how things are run, etc etc. It's not as if you can have 'history' in foreign policy, where many of his faults lie, because to do that you would need to have been a head of state before!

 

[Sidhe]

Bush was logistically qualified for the presidency

No he wasn't, there was no rational reason to let someone so devoid of intelligence into politics, logistics is about a person having the intelligence to make good decisions on relevant data, especially militarilly, it's not something Bush has done with anything approaching consistency.

 

[King Flevance]

I don't see any real problems with this. It would amaze alot of people to find that there isn't many people out there that know there are 50 states much less be able to name them all on the spot. I don't understand how anyone in America with a high school diploma, much less a college degree, can miss these questions. Especially considering how it is shoved down you throat every year for the first 20 years of your life.

I think it is a good idea. These are very basic questions that everyone who is a citizen should be able to answer. If you don't know these things, you aren't too concerned about the way the country works/currently functions anyways.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

No he wasn't, there was no rational reason to let someone so devoid of intelligence into politics, logistics is about a person having the intelligence to make good decisions on relevant data, especially militarilly, it's not something Bush has done with anything approaching consistency.

Well, he's obviously intelligent, if he got a PHD from Harvard.*Enter the 'buy your way through college crowd'*. I don't care what people think, you cannot get a degree or something like that just because you have a lot of money.
Smart, no, I'd say not. He was qualified to enter the presidency, he had served as Governor of a state, Texas, for a while, and, oh, this is a big one, his father was President of the same country. That's a big step up. It doesn't matter if you think he's a moron on foreign policy, he was just as qualified, if not more so, than many people in this country. Al Gore in 2000 had a good politcal resume, too, but John Kerry was far from capable of running the White House.

 

[shortguy]

I agree, democracy only works if people are educated.

I don't agree. I doubt the people are much--or any--less educated than they've ever been, and democracy has still worked pretty well.

 

[King Flevance]

Smart, no, I'd say not. He was qualified to enter the presidency, he had served as Governor of a state, Texas, for a while, and, oh, this is a big one, his father was President of the same country. That's a big step up. It doesn't matter if you think he's a moron on foreign policy, he was just as qualified, if not more so, than many people in this country. Al Gore in 2000 had a good politcal resume, too, but John Kerry was far from capable of running the White House.

Even being a democrat, mostly, I agree with this. The PHD from Harvard doesn't really back much merit to it which is why I snipped it. The red part holds no relavance to his credibility to me though. I agree on Gore, and on Kerry. I only voted for Kerry to get Bush out of office. It didn't work

 

[Norlamand]

I agree with the concept but it would never pass the constitutional test. Even idiots have the right to vote.

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
Winston Churchill