Should we test a person's knowledge before they vote and use their score to weight their vote accordingly?
351055
great question. almost as much a catch 22 question as "flag burning"  but it has considerable merit. i think knowledge is a necessary precursor to such a great responsibility. i strongly lean towards YES.
398760
Personally, I believe if a person doesn't know what they believe and why they believe it they should NEVER VOTE and NEVER COMPLAIN.  This goes for those who agenerallygree with me  also.
1136688
Yes, I did know this, and I do this. I check up on my "representatives" (not that they actually represent) and I let them know when I am not happy with them, what way I want them to vote on upcoming issues, and I make sure they are well aware that their job hangs on their choices.
1086246
NO!!! It is very important to make sure our voters (and future voters) are educated in the subject!!!!! I cannot emphasize this enough!!!
774517
I think the idea has some merit, as long as people are allowed the option of abstaining or spoiling their ballot paper.\n\nMy primary concern though is making sure that people make an informed choice, I think that is at least as important as increasing turnout. I think compulsory voting would only exacerbate the problem of uninformed voting, unless you make people sit through presentations from all the candidates on the ballot paper and then pass a test afterwards...let's face it, that ain't ever gonna happen.
1096301
I think it would be interesting if politicians had the opportunity to voluntarily take a standardized test on the Constitution. The results of that test would be fascinating but not necessarily able to predict the best candidate for the job.
1118936
No. It gives you something to look forward to. Also gives you time to gain knowledge about voting through your schooling.
604735
Are you aware of the Jim Crow laws? They made intelligence tests required. Remember, this legally keeps people from voting. I think almost everyone has an opinion. We should all be allowed to vote, even if we don't like who the people choose. I think if you don't vote everyone should know, and you should be banned from complaining. If you don't care enough about your nation to vote for the leader, what gives you the right to complain about it? This, of course, could not apply to those under eighteen or who were not of legal voting age when the last election occured. I think voter education would be much more productive. Politicians need to tell everyone exactly where they stand on topics, there need to be sheets comparing each persons stand on hot issues distributed to the masses. This can be difficult to do, but if all parties joined to make it happen, we would have smarter voters. People would, in theory, vote for politicians they side with. Then you would know whomever is in office is the favorite.
491341
Why do you need accurate results from people living in the US on Yahoo? Just because you have a "one person-one vote" policy-does not mean that people will not try and throw your poll.
758797
I voted on a diebold machine and felt it was safe and accurate.\n\nHowever, if someone really tried and knew what they were doing, fraud could be an issue with those machines. Better safeguards are needed in the future.
251208
Let everyone know that in order to maintain a society that is orderly and law abiding, we should all participate in an election. It's important that we research candidates and laws prior to an election so that we know what we want. We have to make ourselves heard. Every vote counts!
412347
Didn't Uncle Jeb run one of those tests on the Elderly of Florida during the 2000 election with Al Gore/ Bush. I heard Al Gore won Florida, and then "HUH" for some reason the Elderly in Florida weren't competent enough to vote. The Republican media said the Elderly were incompetent of voting when they had voted for 50 years. So yes I think an IQ test should be required to keep the idiots away from politics.
322313
In some sense, no test reflects what a person REALLY knows.  All tests pick some set of questions to "sample" what a person knows, and then extrapolate from there.  (There is virtually no test which goes methodically through every piece of knowledge to see exactly what a person knows or doesn't know.)\n\nBeyond this, there's always the chance that, due to psychological factors or due to the physical design of the test, a student will give a wrong answer even though she or he knows the right answer.\n\nBut the limitations described above apply to all tests.  Standardized tests are typically designed carefully to minimize sources of error.  \n\nOne of the things that standardized tests have in their favor is that they don't attempt to try to measure "raw" knowledge.  Rather, they ask the same questions of a group of people and then give a ranking within that group.  Who knows the most (scores the highest)?  Who knows the least (scores the lowest)?\n\nBecause the standardized tests give ranked scores, then, they're not designed to reflect "what students really know."\n\nI guess this means that the basic answer to your question is that standardized tests do "reflect" what students really know, but that they are not designed to give a direct measure of what students really know.
1068975
Two possible ways: \n\nPreferably, conduct a vote;  a subjective measure of opinion given a statistically sound sample of your reference group. \n\nIf a statistically sound sample of the reference group is not available, use any subset available.. even if it is as low as one person (you)...
844821
Papacito gave good advice.\n\nThis is a school day!  What are you doing on the net?\n\nJ. Kerry warned you about your fate if you have a poor education.\n\nBut, on the flip side, G. Bush proved that you don't have to be smart...\n\nFor future voting reference: \n\nExamine your values.  Learn about the candidates and issues.  Try to weed out the "media spin".  Vote with your brain.
841445
I haven't heard about this specifically, but in theory, I agree- it would just bring in uninformed voters. We need voters who have opinions that need to be heard; the payoff of voting is having someone in office to do the job correctly and get things done, what's a better incentive to vote than that?
859484
Dont know dude, but i will tell you this, cool way of cheating yea??\nAnswer some questions....sign your name at the end and then vote for yourself,  pretty smart hey??, had a look and you do the same thing over and over!