I have an opinion that isnt very popular with many people and will most likely never be implemented because of the logistical nightmare it would create. From the title you can probably see that I believe that there should be a simple voter test standardized and implemented across all the states. In order to vote in a federal, state or local election, you need to have taken this test. Much like a test for a drivers license it could be administered to people in high schools and after you pass it once you are registered.
The test itself would be an extremely simple test for anyone that studies for it, im literally talking about 10 questions that would ask something along the lines of “How many branches of government are there?” or “How many people are in each branch?”. These are questions we expect anyone who wants to become a citizen in this country to answer, yet most people cant answer them themselves. The test has to be standardized to avoid discrimination but that will most likely happen anyway which is why both parties dont want a voter test.
The real reason for a voter test is to cut down on the amount of uninformed voters that line up and vote because they have nothing better to do or vote a candidate just because someone told them to. I am not of the belief that voting is a right that anyone should be able to have, in fact neither does the government because if you commit a felony you cant vote. In the same way I believe that voting should be in line with a meritocracy so even the littlest of effort would be rewarded with the privilege. This is something many people would disagree with so it is at a point of agree to disagree for me.
When it comes to my article from a few days ago when I talked about people not having weighted opinions, I believe this carries over to voting as well. People who dont understand basic ideas of how a country is run perhaps shouldnt be voting for us to keep digging ourselves into a hole. Its clear that the government has to cut down on some programs like social security in order to stop running a deficit, but if you go up there and say you are going to cut funding for some programs, you will never be elected. This is a huge problem we actually face.
Who knows if voting tests would even work anyway, I just put the idea out there in a perfect world. They might also just cost too much to institute and the logistical problems like I said would end up being ridiculous. However I think in general even if there were no voter tests that the uninformed voter or the voter who believes everything that is spoon fed to them is a big problem. The political system has many reasons it needs to be fixed, but I doubt we will ever see them occur because the biggest winners are both parties who know they are the only choices in the current system.
-Calaber24p