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?

I disagree.

What I would like though is proportional representation. Reform got 14% of the votes and the Greens 6% yet both got under 1% of seats.

Yeah, it will weed out all of those people who don't think correctly.

Great idea. I’m voting for lower taxes, and increased public spending! 🙄

I said this when I was about 12 and was properly aware what the general election was all about for the first time.

My idea was you'd answer simple multiple choices on policies - like 'the green party proposes to do what to funding for x issue' increase / maintain / decrease.

It was quickly pointed out though that people died so everyone could vote, and taking the vote away from people deemed not aware / clever / informed / good / right thinking enough is a bloody slippery slope. Who sets the questions? Who decides what a 'pass' is? Who stops the questions being used to create a biased electorate?

Can't be done. Shouldn't be done.

Even if it's all 100% tickety boo, people will still think it's being used to prevent the right/left/unemployed/working class/rich/etc etc etc from voting. Probably all at the same time. It would destroy what faith there is that even if the politicians are shades of bad and worse, at least the process of voting is fair and equal. And they'd be right, because it is inevitable someone would abuse it.

It's a really bad system, isn't it? Virtually one in seven people voted for Reform, so technically, they should have had at least 90 seats in Parliament. Love them or loathe them, they have a lot of support.

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I loathe them personally but support some form of PR. I think it would lead to more coalition governments but isn’t all politics about compromising?

We had a chance to vote for change everyone voted to keep the system they were used too

Ah! A cracking idea (unless you’ve thought about it for more than about 2 seconds).

Honestly I think everyone should be forced to vote with a "none of the above" box to tick that way 100% of the people arnt following 25% of the people (ie the ones who voted) rightly or wrongly everyone should have a say

I agree that test based on questions about politics should not be used for all the reasons you're mentioned.

I do believe however that there should be some basic IQ testing and those below at least average level should not be allowed to vote. IQ testing which is not biased against minorities etc. And I'm not joking, I really do think so.

Third time I’ve had to post Orwell this week but I’ll just leave this here to remind op about intellectual snobbery:

“Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.”
George Orwell

Don’t be ridiculous. People with low IQs have just as much right to a say in how this country is run than you or I (well I say you but do you have a higher than average IQ? 🤔🤨🤣)

Did you past your test OP?
You know, the one where they explain what a democracy is?

I agree that everyone should vote but I think a 'none of the above' box would result in no government - I think most of us would tick it if it was an option.

I would incentivise voting somehow rather than enfirce it.

There's no such thing as a totally unbiased IQ test. And even if there were, there would always be the risk, or rather the certainty, of people in charge manipulating them to exclude certain groups.

You do realise, don’t you, that literally half the country has an IQ below average?
And a mere 50% are above average?

I think the exact opposite and we should have compulsory voting. With a 'none of these' option.

OP just wants people to vote the way she votes, that’s all

There's absolutely no way that a test would be able to be crafted without being at least slightly in favour of one side. You would end democracy lol

Anyone "too liberal" or alternatively "too far right" wouldnt be able to vote, ensuring that one particular party just keep getting elected over and over again.

Everyone keeps saying the op only wants people to vote if they think as she does but that's not at all what she has said. She's suggesting there should be some baseline assessment to be sure that people are not using their important, powerful vote without the faintest idea of what they are doing.

I remember seeing a clip during the Brexit referendum with a young woman who thought she'd vote leave so there'd be less football on TV and her boyfriend would spend more time with her...but she wasn't sure because if we left Europe she'd not be able to go to Disney anymore and see Mickey. People keep banging on about democracy but as a pp said, the original concept of democracy absolutely did not include everyone. The fact that that young woman had a hand in the slim majority that caused Brexit is a mockery of the original concept.

Other people have as much worth as you.

At least average IQ as the cut off point?!

You realise that's a full 50% of the population you'd be excluding??

I think at the very most it might be worth considering whether it's workable to exclude people who have been medically assessas as not having capacity. But even that is a minefield.

Actually, perhaps it would be fairer and a better system to go the opposite way and everyone was legally required to vote. As long as spoiling the ballot was still an option.

She hasn't said anything about worth. She's said maybe we should look at fitness for a task. Politics / the economy/ international affairs are incredibly complex and even experts rarely agree on the right approach. Most of us probably vote with only a fairly simplistic idea of major issues but there should be SOME engagement. As I said upthread, you don't entrust any other kind of task to someone with no skill or knowledge of that task. Why do we do it with this? Yes it's hard, and I know the Churchill quote but it should not be beyond us to come up with some sort of baseline, multi choice option delivered so as not to embarrass or shame anyone. Sample tests could be available freely online and at local libraries, post offices, supermarkets if you like, ever effort made for inclusivity but a baseline.

I don’t like this idea because sometimes you agree with policies from more than one party and need to decide which to prioritise, or you want to vote tactically. I voted Lib Dem in the last election as that was the best way to get the Tories out of my constituency. I’d ideally rather have voted Green.