Testing skills before voting ?

[Needacupofteaandcrackers]

Watching the recent horror show in White House. It made me wonder if there should be a basic comprehension test before people are allowed to vote ? I’m not talking about the 11+ test. Maybe just a couple of questions to confirm understanding

This question was raised on here after the EU referendum and I was surprised how few people objected.
What would the two questions be?

That’s not how democracy works though. Even idiots are allowed to have their say.

Oh aren't you nice, only people YOU approve are allowed to vote eh?

Perhaps you need your intelligence testing if you think that your suggestion is in any way democratic!

i’m not trained in in designing questions so someone in more trained would know. But I would just go with “if someone has consistently lied and bullied would you trust him to lead”

This would be discriminatory against people with a learning disability.

Find me a politician who hasn't lied.

Starmer claimed women can have penises for goodness sake. That's not only a lie it's ridiculous and harmful to female people.

I'm not defending Trump, he's a moron but he is democratically elected by people who preferred him to the alternative option.

How about - can you string 2 coherent sentences together?

Could Biden?

Are you suggesting that these questions should be designed to influence the voter? Also, I'm not sure what skills a question like this is testing.

Some US states used to use tests like that to stop Black people voting. So maybe Trump will bring them back!

Voting is a universal right it should not be conditional.

A fucking reprehensible thread @Needacupofteaandcrackers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test#:~:text=Between%20the%201850s%20and%201960s,their%20discretion%20based%20on%20race.

Not so clever now, eh?

If the majority of people want a bully as a leader, then that’s what we should have. On a national level, average intelligence should win out and the right result wins - but that’s why it’s important everyone votes.

For the USA it could be...

1. Do you want to make America great again?
2. What colour are Californian oranges?

To confirm understanding of what OP? All you have to do is decide who you want to vote for, for whatever reason (which you don't have to justify to anyone btw) and put a cross in a box on election day.

To me this sounds like a very slippery slope to limiting who can and who can't vote and is not democratic.

IMO everyone over 18 should have the opportunity to vote, even the people I don't agree with.

Wow what a jump some people have made. I never said anything about literacy test !!!! My mum did not have schooling but is the most intelligent person I know in every sense of the word intelligent. She worked things out herself. Literacy does not equal intelligence, we all know that.

This might have seemed a ridiculous and undemocratic idea for years but with all the misinformation around and social media actually I think there is a basis for at least throwing the idea out there.

The main problem is that a lot of people know they're being lied to and simply don't care they'll just always vote for the guy that doesn't like foreigners

Your mum never went to school?

So how would you feel if she was born just a generation earlier and wasn't able to vote on the account of not having a penis. Because that's essentially what you are proposing here - an arbitrary standard of worthiness.

But what about the Democratic lies? If the 'right people' lie is that OK?

All election promises are lies if they don't happen after the election. And one person cannot make them happen.

But you propose a comprehension test. It's right there, in your OP.

That's literacy. You have to read it kind of thing.

FFS.

I believe I just mentioned lies, not specific to any particularly group of people

What the OP means is that Donald Trump was elected because the voting public were to 'thick' to choose the 'right' candidate.

If we stop the stupid people voting then you'll get the right result. What could possibly go wrong?

If you live within a society, then you deserve a vote in how that society is run. People who you think are stupid still pay taxes, use public services, raise children, join the military to fight for civilians, contribute to their communities. In return, they get to have a vote about all of those things, whether you agree with how they vote and why or not.

It was only relatively recently in the U.K. that people with learning disabilities and others formerly classed as “mentally deficient” gained the right to vote in the first place. That you’d take that right back from them based on biased questioning to ascertain whether they’d vote the “right” way is pretty crass.