To think that some people shouldn't be allowed to vote

[WillowFae]

Wait, don't judge me yet!

They were talking about the EU referendum on the radio yesterday and said that the original question put forward was changed as they were worried it might confuse people.

Original: "Do you think the UK should be part of the EU?"
New version: "Do you think the UK should remain part of the EU?"

The reason for the change was they were concerned that people might get confused with the first question and not realise that the UK was ALREADY part of the EU.

I'm sorry, but if you don't even know that then you can't POSSIBLY have weighed up the strengths and weaknesses of remaining in the EU and come to an educated decision!

plenty of people vote based on an uneducated opinion. YABU

But is that right? I know everyone is entitled to vote but in my opinion that entitlement comes with a responsibility to actually understand the consequences of what you are voting for.

well enough people in the general election apeared to have fucked it right up.

Show would you measure a persons competency to vote? Just...how??

yabu we cannot test everyone before they vote and we should not prevent the disabled from voting.

I agree OP - in fact everyone who wouldn't vote as I would clearly hasn't thought out the arguments properly and therefore shouldn't be voting. Fortunately, I'm not in charge. One of the pitfalls of democracy is that you have to take notice of the voice of the people who, en masse, aren't always that bright. On the other hand, the alternatives (dictatorship, vetting who votes) are too awful to consider, so we put up with it.

YABVU
that entitlement comes with a responsibility to actually understand the consequences of what you are voting for
Who's going to measure that?

Well some posters here thought they were being very reasonable by allowing the bacon-eating method of a politician to influence them.

I think there are great swathes of the population that are so unreasonable and so ill-informed on so many things that the best thing is to let everybody vote as usual and Gaussian distribution will take care of it.

YABU because we should never start deciding who should and shouldn't vote - lest somebody thinks that of us.

It wouldn't be democracy then. It'd be a different type of cracy, can't remember what, meritocracy or summat. Thin end of the wedge and all that. But yes it's very disheartening to hear people say they have voted based on appearance or because of some half truth spun by a Britain First GB post.

I was listening to R4 the other day, and interestingly , apparently, the question will be phrased as 'should Britisin remain in the eu' yes/no. More people are likely to put 'yes' as that answer is positive. (As opposed to 'should Britain leave the EU - yes) Or something like that .

I sympathise OP. The upcoming referendum fills me with fear because so many people are so ill-informed about what the consequences of leaving the EU would be.

But, in practice it's unworkable and wrong.

However, there must be some way of holding the media to higher standard with regards what they print. The coverage of the election, particularly BaconSandwichGate plummeted the depths.

Of course you cannot restrict who votes based on their general ignorance. If that were the case we could all argue that anyone who disagrees with our viewpoint isn't clued up enough to vote.

It does worry me though that we will be asked to vote on something so important and there will be so much biased media coverage. Your average Joe Public probably isn't going to go out of their way to seek unbiased information about the benefits and negatives of EU membership. I also worry that many of the no votes will be driven by xenophobia.

X post IPity

I know it is totally unworkable, and there is no way you could ever have a 'criteria' for voting. It just frightens me that people vote without really being informed. :(