Would it be a good idea to quiz voters?

Question

Any democracy depends on an informed citizenry. It seems to me that far too many people who vote are poorly informed, for example in a recent poll only 34% of Americans were able to name all three branches of our federal government (legislative, executive, judicial...and no i didnt look it up). Underinformed voters can drag down a nation by voting for unhelpful or outright harmful legislation and/or leaders.

I propose that a simple ten or twenty question multiple choice quiz should be attached to all voting ballots (in-person or by mail) and in order for a person's vote to count they need to get atleast half of the questions right. Simple and easy civics questions like how many states are there in the nation, who is the vice president, who wrote the declaration of independence, and so on.

What say ye?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Thats one reason the Founders went to so much trouble to create a Republic, and aviod the pitfalls of "Democracy".
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"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury." -- Alexander Fraser Tyler, in 1776 book, "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic,"

"The general object was to produce a cure for the evils under which the United States labored; that in tracing these evils to their origins, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy."  -- Edmund Randolph of Virginia, describing the effort to deal with the issue at the Constitutional Convention

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." -- John Adams

"democracy will envy all, contend with all, endeavor to pull down all; and when by chance it happens to get the upper hand for a short time, it will be revengeful, bloody, and cruel..." -- John Adams"Hence it is, that such Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives, as they have been violent in their deaths... The two great points of difference between a Democracy and a Republic are, first, the delegation of the Government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest: secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended." -  James Madison The Federalist Papers, #10.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson

**** Communists, however speak quite highly of Democracy.

"Those who hope that we shall move away from the socialist path will be greatly disappointed. Every part of our program of perestroika...is fully based on the principle of more socialism and more democracy."  - Mikhail Gorbachev Perestroika - New Thinking for Our Country and the World 1988

Mordent · Answer

"Uninformed voters" still have rights and they still deserve to be heard.

Exactly this sort of thing was historically used to bar minorities from voting. I doubt it would be much better this time.

? · Answer

I agree with you but in the U.S., citizens have the right to be stupid.

Would it be a good idea to quiz voters?

3 Answers