1965 Alabama Literacy Test (Pass To Vote)

Would it be fair to require EVERY SINGLE VOTER to pass this test before they cast their vote in any public election? It's not a super easy test so let's say, you have to get an 80%. 55/68 you can miss 13.

http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/origins/images/al_literacy.pdf

 

that's not literacy, it's 8th grade civics class.

of course, it doesn't really matter if voters have to pass the test or not, since voting doesn't mean anything anyway. make them dance a jig before they can vote too, might as well at least make it interesting.

 

Out of curiosity what percentage of the population do you think would be excluded from voting in the 2016 election by these requirements? What % could study, and still fail?

 

i dunno, for one thing it depends on what they consider a passing score. i think a lot of people could get the standard college D- of 60%. the 80% you mentioned before would probably exclude a vast majority of voters.

i don't even want to think about the percentage that would study and still fail. in my experience, it would be nearly 100%, because intelligent people don't seem to have any need to study in the first place and unintelligent people seem to study forever and not absorb anything.

 

I agree, I think a scary percentage would be incapable of getting 80%. The founding fathers did not intend everyone to be able to vote. The world is filled with ditch diggers who, if given the opportunity to ruin the future of a country, would gladly be manipulated into letting it happen. We let people on the verge of mental retardation vote. Someone with an IQ of 72 is want to have an equivalently valid assessment of right and wrong directions in regard to public policy as that of someone with a 145 IQ. There SHOULD be a minimum intelligence requirement.

If every single potential voter is subject to the same tests, what reasonable argument is there against that notion?

 

I would be happy with a working voter ID program.

I live in New Jersey where tombstones vote.

in aincient times there was a property requirement for voting.

 

I helped a colleague study for his citizenship exam back in the 90s. He was from Portugal and had been working in the US for 6 years while his application was processed. He was a welder with some odd skill that was in great demand at the time and the government had been dicking him around for all kinds of reasons. But he was finally scheduled to take the test so I checked out some study guides and helped him out. As it turns out, it helped me far more than expected. It's a very hard test. I had to know actual crap about John Quincy Adams.

Requiring people to know this stuff is questionable. Sure, I understand requiring some knowledge of US laws so they can stay out of trouble and remember to pay taxes. But it began to feel like that old canard "ignorance of the law is no excuse" which on the face of it requires every American to have a law degree. Preposterous of course. But these days, with so many people willfully just walking across the border, barely able to read or write in their original language, it seems like making people take a test to even be citizens is blatantly unfair to the people who want to come here legally.

The unique thing about US voting is that it places ALL Americans lives on the line. Which is why, as a right, any citizen affected by US law should have the ability to vote on that law. Competence in voting has taken a back seat to the money show anyway. We vote for trite reasons like "The first XXXXX to become XXXXX". But in the US the citizens rarely get to vote for things like immigration, security or food regulations. The government assumes they are on the whole, too stupid to manage such things. A voting competence exam won't affect this one bit. It just creates another governmental control valve. Like marriage!

 

I think quite a good percentage would be excluded. As for what percentage could study and still fail ... idk, but I'd call that grouo of people completely imcompetant.

 

tellin' ya nerd, Nazi face tattoos will save you a lot of typing and explaining.

 

Thing is if someone is ignorant and as fucked up enough to be a racist then that’s probably evidence enough to say they shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

And that’s the thing if you begin limiting the vote for any particular reason it opens the way for other reasons and can be used by one group or another for political advantage.

 

Look at this shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5nHXOQUswQ

 

My dog could out smart Judge Judy.

Stupid voters are the base of the GOP, they aren't about to let a literacy test happen.