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Vivek Ramaswamy Wants to Raise Voting Age to 25 (or have a "competency test" for people 18-25)
(www.thedailybeast.com)
this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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But really, we do need a voting competency test.
I know why this idea seems attractive to people sometimes, but I don't trust the people in power to administer one in an unbiased way.
also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test
We need a fair competency test for all voters, young and old. However there is no way to make and maintain a fair test that has no chance for corruption. So every citizen gets a right to vote with no exceptions. Anything restricting voter rights needs abolished
Automatic voter registration needs to happen as well as federal holiday for voting with required day off work for everyone.
Many people lose the chance to vote by being purged from voter rolls or not having time to vote when the voting booth is miles away and they work a 10 hour shift.
Federal holiday for voting accomplishes nothing as company’s will gladly pay you a extra holiday to keep your vote silent.
Required day off to vote doesn’t work on its own. All medical staff can’t take off. Many industries can’t afford to cut staff to allow them to vote. We need multiple days to vote on and everyone needs to be given one of those days off paid. 3 voting days and everyone is required to have 1 paid day off during those days should be enough for every business to get their shit together and find coverage. We can operate as normal for those 3 days.
And finally, more voting locations. Any government building should be a viable voting location. Let me vote at my municipal building. It’s weird I need to go to a church to vote for a government official
Excellent observations and consideration.
Since everybody gets to vote we should make sure everyone's competent to vote by educating them.
At least that was part of the reasoning behind free public education.
A pool of smart workers to pick from was also an attractive idea at the time.
It's almost like having a well-educated population is a good thing for a country. Curious.
If the workers get too smart, they might want change that benefits them.
There are a huge number of citizens denied their right to vote for no other crime than having not existed for an arbitrary number of days. That, too, should be abolished.
So, you're telling me we Kant?
I see what you did there.
But really, we do need (ARBITRARY BARRIER) to (HUMAN RIGHT)
We need walls around our water sources!
Damn it, that doesn't sound nearly as far-fetched as it was supposed to, actually. In real life, they'd be moats not walls, because it makes less sense.
I mean, if you can’t swim across some water to get your water, did you really want water, after all?
I feel the opposite. We should have mandatory voting for all federal general elections. Treat it like jury duty or taxes - voting is a civic duty. You should be compelled to cast a ballot even if you leave it blank because you have no preference.
Of course, this can only workwith automatic voter registration and 100% mail-in ballots.
If so, then it should be for all voters. Otherwise one is creating different classes of voters. We've already tried that, and it didn't turn out well.