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A near impossible literacy test Louisiana used to suppress the black vote

(www.openculture.com)
244 points rcarmo | 16 comments | 21 Oct 24 21:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.796s | source | bottom
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nneonneo ◴[21 Oct 24 23:35 UTC] No.41909665[source]▶
Note: there are questions about this test's authenticity. Per a note on https://www.crmvet.org/info/la-test.htm:

> [NOTE: At one time we also displayed a "brain-twister" type literacy test with questions like "Spell backwards, forwards" that may (or may not) have been used during the summer of 1964 in Tangipahoa Parish (and possibly elsewhere) in Louisiana. We removed it because we could not corroborate its authenticity, and in any case it was not representative of the Louisiana tests in broad use during the 1950s and '60s.]

Each parish in Louisiana implemented their own literacy tests, which means that there wasn't really much uniformity in the process. Another (maybe more typical) test: https://www.crmvet.org/info/la-littest2.pdf

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1. anonnon ◴[22 Oct 24 04:02 UTC] No.41911081[source]▶
This one seems deliberately difficult to answer correctly, even with the requisite civics knowledge:

> The President of the Senate gets his office

> a. by election by the people.

> b. by election by the Senate.

> c. by appointment by the President.

The Vice President is the President of the Senate, but the duties are typically exercised (save the tie-breaking vote) by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, a Senator chosen by whichever party currently has a majority. It seems both a. and b. could be considered correct.

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2. silisili ◴[22 Oct 24 04:22 UTC] No.41911172[source]▶
I'd argue even C could be seen as correct. The president chooses his running mate, after all.
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3. kadoban ◴[22 Oct 24 04:52 UTC] No.41911301[source]▶
C is also literally what happens if a new VP is needed for any reason (needs to get confirmed by Congress though).
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4. shiroiushi ◴[22 Oct 24 05:46 UTC] No.41911528{3}[source]▶
I'd say C is the only correct answer actually. Neither the President nor his running mate are elected by the people; they're elected by the Electoral College. And the question isn't about the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.
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5. silisili ◴[22 Oct 24 07:45 UTC] No.41912110{4}[source]▶
I think that's the point of these questions, to have no clear answer.

So a presidential candidate picks a vice president running mate. Voters vote for the pair. The electoral college then, usually but not always, cast votes matching the voters.

So who decided? Technically the electoral college. Who were guided by the voters. Who voted for someone the president picked.

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6. cedilla ◴[22 Oct 24 09:12 UTC] No.41912528{5}[source]▶
The answer key is included, and the correct answer according to the test is indeed "the people".
7. PeterisP ◴[22 Oct 24 09:14 UTC] No.41912539[source]▶
The key issue and the whole purpose of that question is that also both a. and b. could be considered wrong.

If the person answers A, then the grader can state that this is correct if they like them, or assert that instead B is correct if they don't, so that the test can always provide the desired outcome.

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8. burkaman ◴[22 Oct 24 14:32 UTC] No.41914708[source]▶
Question 5 is also quite (intentionally) ambiguous:

> The Constitution of the United States places the final authority in our Nation in the hands of...

> a. the national courts.

> b. the States.

> c. the people.

The answer key says c. is correct, but I think I would have answered a. You could also argue the States is correct, since they have the authority to amend the Constitution. The very concept of "final authority" is sort of antithetical to the Constitution.

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9. burkaman ◴[22 Oct 24 14:37 UTC] No.41914753{4}[source]▶
And if there is a tie in the electoral college, then the senate elects the Vice President. I would argue that A, which is what the answer key says is correct, is the least correct of these three incorrect answers.
10. lupire ◴[22 Oct 24 15:41 UTC] No.41915412{5}[source]▶
The Political Party chooses the vice presidential candidate for its Elector.

Voters vote for an Elector, not a President/Vice President.

An Elector could pledge a different vice presidential candidate, and might get votes.

The vast majority of voters do not actually know truly how President and Vice President are elected

11. neongreen ◴[22 Oct 24 16:33 UTC] No.41916035[source]▶
The test comes with an answer key. See the second half of https://www.crmvet.org/info/la-littest2.pdf.
12. dragonwriter ◴[22 Oct 24 17:01 UTC] No.41916292[source]▶
The Vice President is elected by the Electoral College, not the people, and the President Pro Tem of the Senate is not the President of the Senate, despite frequently performing the functions of the President, so, strictly speaking, all of the answers are wrong.

Except in the case where a vacancy occurs in the Vice Presidency during a term, in which case the President does appoint a Vice President who is confirmed by the House of Representatives, so (c) would in that case be correct -- but that wasn't true until 1967.

13. dragonwriter ◴[22 Oct 24 17:04 UTC] No.41916318[source]▶
There is no ambiguity, (b) is unambiguously correct (more precisely, it puts it in that hands of State legislatures).
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14. dragonwriter ◴[22 Oct 24 17:06 UTC] No.41916338{3}[source]▶
The Amendment making (c) correct in some circumstances was passed in 1967, so presumably would not be referenced by a test written before that date.
15. burkaman ◴[22 Oct 24 17:18 UTC] No.41916441{3}[source]▶
What about the Supremacy Clause? And aren't state legislatures elected by "the people"? You could argue about this forever.
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16. mrgoldenbrown ◴[22 Oct 24 17:58 UTC] No.41916889{4}[source]▶
State legislatures are elected by the people nowadays yes. But is that required by the Constitution or just a modern convention? I honestly don't know, as a 45 yr old born and raised in the US college educated nerd. The trump administration shenanigans revealed a lot of things we all took for granted to be mere convention or tradition rather than legal requirements.