To believe that people should have to pass a test to vote?

[ZanyWriter]

If you can’t understand basic political issues or policies, why should your vote count as much as someone who does? AIBU to think voting shouldn’t be a universal right?

It would be impossible to do this fairly. Yabu

Just a local county council one but it accurately represents turnout for elections in my area I think the highest it's been was 24%?

This.

OP, I think what you are saying is that people who don't agree with YOU shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Your arrogance and presumption in thinking that, makes you as unsuitable as any.

What side of the line would you fall on?

There was a particular set of people who thought like you in 1930s Germany, OP. You would have fit right in with the Third Reich.

My DB has learning difficulties, and there is no way he should be allowed to vote. He has no understanding of what policies are, let alone how they may affect him or his life. He doesn't understand politics to any degree at all, he can't even run his own life.

My son is the same so he doesn't vote, your brother sounds like he would need another person to facilitate his ability to vote, the point is moot.

So you want to do away with Democracy? Because that is what you are advocating for

If you're planning to be a zombie op suggests you vary your diet as brains are off the menu😁

I take it you are one as well then.

I agree with the OP. We should all understand what we are voting for.

Round our way many people vote for a particular party because their parents, and their parents, voted that way.

When you ask then what policies they like from said party they can't tell you any because they don't know, they just blindly follow what they did last time/last decade.

It's pathetic.

I make the effort to read up and work out who would be best. And then wondered why I bothered as they are all equally shite.

Given this thread, how much to people think a vote is worth ?

Yabu.

Maybe not a test as such. But I do think people should have to at least be aware of the basics and have some idea of what they're voting for.

This, not seen a ' I don't want people who don't think like me having the vote' thread in what like 3 days! 😆

OP of course

I don't agree but I think I get where you might be coming from. A few days before the last General Election my colleague told me he was going to vote for Nigel Farage because he liked him on I'm a Celebrity. I did suggest that it might be best to vote based on policies but he didn't seem to understand what I meant. We are not in Nigel Farage's constituency, I'm not sure if he realised that.

You would like to think so, but my DB does vote. He can't read or write so I have no idea who he votes for. Even if we ask, he doesn't know either. He is is still saying he won't vote for Maurice (Boris) Johnson, he has never lived near BJ's constituency.

The problem with that is: who sets and marks the test? It would be used to exclude people who have the 'wrong' opinions, and could lead to dictatorship..Or even be used to exclude minority groups: some US states used to use literacy tests as a tool to exclude black people from voting.

And voter turnout is low enough as it is. 60% in the 2024 general election. Two out of five not getting to the polls. And in local elections over half don't vote. We don't want to bring turnout down even more.

Local elections don't get much attention in the media.

People are just not putting the effort into these goady threads anymore.

Thank you! This is so funny x

But the organisations representing people with learning disabilities pressure the political parties to produce easy reading manifestos with images.

Absolutely agree.

There should be some IQ test to pass to be allowed to vote. At least some basic 100 should be a threshold, not talking about anything sky high.

Oh there's a lot of this. The most common being 'I know that name so I'll vote for them' even if the person is only well-known locally because of corruption scandals or whatever.
Better education and better media is the answer though, not suppression of the vote!