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

(www.openculture.com)
244 points rcarmo | 5 comments | 21 Oct 24 21:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.772s | source
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jiriknesl ◴[22 Oct 24 08:33 UTC] No.41912334[source]▶
I know, from a human rights point of view, this is very problematic. But imagine, if only people who can really understand written text, who can calculate, who understand how legal system works, who have basics of logic could vote.

Of course, those tests shouldn't be that ambiguous, but if they were phrased a bit more clear, these would be very simple. At the same time, English has changed in the last 50 years. That phrasing might have been common back then.

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1. a5c11 ◴[22 Oct 24 09:22 UTC] No.41912590[source]▶
This is the key problem of democracy, the educated part of the society is always minority.
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2. hshshshshsh ◴[22 Oct 24 10:09 UTC] No.41912822[source]▶
I don't think education do much. People still stupidly vote for one of either republicans or Democrats based on trivial psychological reasons.

If education played some role you would probably might have seen an alternative party/form of government emerging over time as people became more educated.

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3. gljiva ◴[22 Oct 24 10:47 UTC] No.41913020[source]▶
Knowing facts and applying algebraic formulas indeed doesn't seem to be doing much, but I guess education about logic, critical thinking, biases, fallacies and debate _would_ play a role _if such education was emphasized_.
4. Cthulhu_ ◴[22 Oct 24 14:58 UTC] No.41914940[source]▶
> If education played some role you would probably might have seen an alternative party/form of government emerging over time as people became more educated.

But there are plenty of alternative parties / forms of government, it's just that in the existing political systems - especially in the US - it is reduced to a two-party system. First-past-the-post voting naturally leads to a two party system.

Basically, the US is doomed to stay in a two party system unless one of them decides to change the constitution or whatever dictates this system, or there's a successful revolution. (I don't think Jan 6th would be a successful revolution even if they, for example, killed all the senators).

5. mrguyorama ◴[22 Oct 24 16:54 UTC] No.41916233[source]▶
Plenty of democrats are trying to enable Ranked Choice Voting in the US, and that is a good step towards improving how the US voting system works, and reducing the power that the parties have.

Ranked choice voting for example means that Republicans in mostly Democrat states like california could be better represented than they currently are, by voting for a "more conservative" candidate who will still get democrat votes.

The republican party is explicitly against ranked choice voting despite this.