Yeah it sounds fun unless you have any awareness of how this actually worked out when it was used in the past. Fully not okay.
this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2025
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You mean tests that were designed to ensure that only "the right people" were able to pass them. As well as a grandfather clause that exempted all of those right people (in modern times there would likely be a voter roll purge that would somehow lose most liberal voters while miraculously keeping all of the conservative ones).
Even if you assumed the test successfully filtered out an educated voterbase, it would take all but five seconds for X party to cheat their exams, kind of like the "grandfather law" which essentially bypassed jim crow era literacy tests for everyone who was white.
Even if you assumed the test successfully filtered out an educated voterbase
"Educated" is already doing some heavy lifting. What education are you demanding voters possess?
Because I've had an earful about "Marxist Professors corrupting our youth!" for my entire life. I doubt conservatives would consider any kind of liberal exam a legitimate test of voting aptitude.
Meanwhile, there's enough jingoism and nationalism in our education system already, such that I could see an exam question "Which religious extremist sect was responsible for 9/11? Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists" or "Is an individual with XY chromosomes a man or a woman?" that's a bit... loaded? Especially when administered right before a national election.
It's not all lazy and slow-witted voters, the media presents the news as if we all had a degree in government. That's apparently what they've put in as a filter but it only allows the worst of the bunch to fly by the seat of their pants, getting their vote from impressions and gut feelings.
This is always shot down because eventually someone in control will change the test to introduce bias in their favor.
But, what if: Make there be one concrete, completely unchangeable rule. The test must be a math question.
No hypothetical story to make the question 'relevant' (E.g. Bob and Alice each have x and y ... calculate z). Just raw math.
There is no biasing a math question.
Perhaps an integral or differential equation with randomly chosen constants.
Yeah, it doesn't filter for civic education.
Yeah, people could prepare and/or give out targeted explainers for the type of question after first voting/mail-in voting day.
Yeah, it will still let some shitty people vote and deny some good people from voting.
But there is no biasing a math question.
Probably will still have more problems in practice. Big ones being making an 'unchangeable' rule, or it being made ineffective by changing the question to something like simple addition.
Not necessarily saying this should be done or is a good idea. Just putting the thought out there.
What that actually looked like:
A perfectly designed test - ambiguous enough that anyone subjected to it can be failed.
I still don't know what #11 is "supposed" to be.
I think it's supposed to say "Cross out the digit necessary", so one digit, in which case cross out the 1 because there's enough 0's that crossing out one 0 isn't enough.
It's 10 that has me confused. Is it asking for the last letter of the first word that starts with 'L' in that sentence? It doesn't actually specify.
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Also worth pointing out, WHY the test is so bad... 1. obviously not even well educated people today can agree on the meaning of a good portion of the questions.
but the biggest thing is, not everyone had to take them... IE the key point intention was "if a parent or grandparent has ever voted, you can skip this test". which is such a blatant giving away that they don't care of an individuals knowledge, they aren't actually worried if they can read, they were just keeping first generation voters from voting... at a time when in particular a specific subset of american's were in position to be first generation voters.
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If voting needed an exam, they would use that exam to stop certain demographics from voting. And no, I'm not talking about the ignorant.
They used to do this and it turned out exactly how you describe. I would probably also add it’d incentivize politicians to dismantle educational institutions serving certain demographics
Surely there are no examples in American history that voting eligibility exams were used to stop certain demographics from voting.
It is 100% used as a weapon to disenfranchise voters.
I do however believe that it should be used on CANDIDATES.
Every single candidate should be made to pass a basic grade 8 biology exam.
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Fuck no. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test
Between the 1850s and 1960s, literacy tests were used as an effective tool for disenfranchising African Americans in the Southern United States. Literacy tests were typically administered by white clerks who could pass or fail a person at their discretion based on race. Illiterate whites were often permitted to vote without taking these literacy tests because of grandfather clauses written into legislation.
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Who determines the questions and answers? Now they are the ones determining who can vote and thus the people in control.
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Sure. Disenfranchise most people. That's a suitable hack to a
checks notes
stable, legitimate, and responsive government.
Even China would have more political legitimacy than such a system. It would collapse almost immediately.
If you ever want a good example of functionalist ideas leading to absolutely uncritical nonsense, here it is.
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This is a bad idea. You would just be creating another layer of gerrymandering.
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Nah, the exams wouldn't be mandatory for everyone. You have a degree? Exempt. You graduated from one of the "certified" high schools (the ones in white neighborhoods but we don't call it that wink wink)? Exempt. Passed NRA shooting license exam? Exempt.
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