A test at voter registration time?

[OxQQme]

Before being able to cast your vote on an issue,
should it be mandatory to 'know' both sides of the issue?
Yea or nay?
Who would write the test?
I vote yea.

[Dora]

1. Nay. n/t

[angstlessk]

2. "The" issue..I think it would be more than one issue at stake

and I for one could never know both sides of every issue out there!

[MGKrebs]

3. Absolutely not.

It is totally against democratic principles.

If it's mandatory to "know", then it would have to be mandatory for the government to "teach" (since we are talking about a basic right here), and there is probably no way you could ever design a system that would fairly teach and test every eligible voter both sides of every ballot issue and therefore not disenfranchise them.

And before you even get to the issue itself, you have to address literacy, and we've already been through that.

I am bordering on being offended that someone would even pose this question in a place like DU.

[unpossibles]

4. hell no and not legal as far as I know

I wish people would be better informed, but you don't want a test to vote - what if the people grading the answers don't agree with your politics?

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Been there done that. It's no longer legal

[noamnety]

6. "both" sides?

Why does this remind me of "escalate" or "don't escalate" with no option to reduce or withdraw?

[meldroc]

7. They used to do this, in the bad ol' days of Jim Crow.

They'd make the tests so obnoxiously difficult that almost nobody could pass them, but whites didn't have to take the test to vote, thanks to the original Grandfather Clause - if your grandfather could vote, you could vote.

Yeah, this is a really, REALLY bad idea.

[LibDemAlways]

8. The fact that we're stuck with

the chimp and Cheney - they did, after all, receive millions of votes - tells you all you need to know about the mentality of the American public and how many unknowingly vote against their own self-interest out of ignorance.

That said, in a Democracy you can only give citizens the right to cast a ballot. You can't force them to cast it wisely.

Of course, accurately counting said ballot is another issue, and in that regard, we've failed miserably.

[boobooday]

9. Nope. That's not democracy n/t

[AllegroRondo]

10. Outlawed by the 14th amendment, I believe

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. Would you want Katherine Harris writing the test?

:shrug:

[rock]

12. Nope

Bad idea

[tammywammy]

13. Absolutely not

[mod mom]

14. We should have to know the blatant lies of the right? I think not.

Anyway voting should not require testing nor should they require IDs.

[EFerrari]

15. Illegal. n/t

[ComerPerro]

16. No it certainly should not.

Lets see. Both sides.

So lets take Iraq.

You may know that its a pointless, meaningless war based on lies and spin and motivated by profit and politics.

But do you also know the other side, that the war was necessary and appropriate after 9/11, is making the world a safer place, was worth the costs, and is only experiencing small setbacks due to traitorous liberals like yourself?

Because, face it, that's "both sides".

Do you really want your right to vote to be based on RW talking points?