If You Needed to Pass an Exam to Vote
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In the US anyway, its historically been those very people that have tried things like education requirements or tests for a person to be allowed to vote, specifically to create an excuse to deny anyone that wasnt white.
Yes I did watch a vid about those tests lately. The issue there was that whites did not have to take them. If everyone has to take tests and they are designed sanely that should not be an issue.
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What that actually looked like:
Prove you're literate by solving lateral thinking word puzzles.
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Yes I did watch a vid about those tests lately. The issue there was that whites did not have to take them. If everyone has to take tests and they are designed sanely that should not be an issue.
is it realistic for them to be designed sanely tho, and remain so even if they were? Remember, the people making such a "you must pass test to vote" law would be the politicians people are voting for, so they would have a huge incentive to mess with the process in such a way as to make it easier for the demographics that tend to vote for them and harder for the ones that dont. Adding an additional time hurdle like a test also has effects regardless of the likelihood of passing it, for example, it makes retirees with more free time to even do the test be more likely to qualify than someone too tired after working long hours to bother.
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wrote last edited by [email protected]Sure. Disenfranchise most people. That's a suitable hack to a
checks notes
stable, legitimate, and responsive government.Even China would have more political legitimacy than such a system. It would collapse almost immediately.
If you ever want a good example of functionalist ideas leading to absolutely uncritical nonsense, here it is.
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A perfectly designed test - ambiguous enough that anyone subjected to it can be failed.
I still don't know what #11 is "supposed" to be.
And 13 is unclear if it's strictly 'more than' or 'more than or equal'
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is it realistic for them to be designed sanely tho, and remain so even if they were? Remember, the people making such a "you must pass test to vote" law would be the politicians people are voting for, so they would have a huge incentive to mess with the process in such a way as to make it easier for the demographics that tend to vote for them and harder for the ones that dont. Adding an additional time hurdle like a test also has effects regardless of the likelihood of passing it, for example, it makes retirees with more free time to even do the test be more likely to qualify than someone too tired after working long hours to bother.
I mean yeah for the US I really cannot see anything like this working. That country and their democracy is just too far fucked. But making it like a 5 question little quiz before the voting would not really affect much imo.
I do see where concern would come from.
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A perfectly designed test - ambiguous enough that anyone subjected to it can be failed.
I still don't know what #11 is "supposed" to be.
You need to cross out enough zeros so that it makes a million. Pretty sure
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It is 100% used as a weapon to disenfranchise voters.
I do however believe that it should be used on CANDIDATES.
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A perfectly designed test - ambiguous enough that anyone subjected to it can be failed.
I still don't know what #11 is "supposed" to be.
wrote last edited by [email protected]You cross out all of the 0s after the 1 and first 5 0s, so that the number is 100,000
Or you cross out just the 1
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Yeah obviously this could happen but I think a good idea would be every couple years or each election you do the test about the currently held election. Like something about policies and what the people are campaigning for. If you don't know what the hell is going on in politics at least a little you don't deserve the vote. Maybe dven make the bar to pass like 30%. Just don't let people vote if the only reason they came to vote is because someone said they will make it so less brown people are around
Check this out.
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This should be mandatory. Cannot have mouth breathers vote for far right because they don't like the colour of their neighbours' skin.
First question on the test:
"What is the most important American value?" -
This was basically the first Jim Crow law to stop black people from voting. I would love a more informed voting pool but this would 100% immediately be used to disenfranchise specific groups.
Just make the questions difficult for specific groups to know on average, or fill it full of trick questions with bad faith answers.
Perhaps the exam should have included a section on the history of civil rights and voting suppression in the United States.
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A perfectly designed test - ambiguous enough that anyone subjected to it can be failed.
I still don't know what #11 is "supposed" to be.
Cross 1, so it's 0
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And 13 is unclear if it's strictly 'more than' or 'more than or equal'
That's on purpose - white skin? it can be either one; otherwise both are wrong.
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And 13 is unclear if it's strictly 'more than' or 'more than or equal'
I would always assume not more than or equal unless it says so
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Check this out.
Yeah I have seen what one of those tests look like before
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You cross out all of the 0s after the 1 and first 5 0s, so that the number is 100,000
Or you cross out just the 1
Six zeroes, right? Five zeroes makes one hundred thousand. Six makes a million. Or am I missing something?
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I wonder if it would change anything if instead of a quiz you just like handed people a printout of like a summary of how government works from Wikipedia. Like, maybe convert some people who think the president makes laws.
It would probably still be corrupted by conservatives, sadly.
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Six zeroes, right? Five zeroes makes one hundred thousand. Six makes a million. Or am I missing something?
You need to make it under one million
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Yeah I have seen what one of those tests look like before
And you still think a test like that, applied to all, would be a good idea?
