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

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243 points rcarmo | 1 comments | 21 Oct 24 21:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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elzbardico ◴[22 Oct 24 13:53 UTC] No.41914288[source]▶
Those specific tests, in their context, are obviously racist.

But I believe that now that we have public education available to everyone we should have some basic literacy and civic tests for people to vote.

Also, provide no-expenses IDs for people, make voting day a national holiday, stop private campaign financing, make lobbying illegal.

Give free public transporation on voting day for those who need, but otherwise stop the idea that we have to convince everyone to vote, no matter how desinterested and oblivious to the issues they are.

The idea that people who couldn't care less about public life and their issues need to vote no matter what is completely stupid.

Voting is not only a right, it should entail a duty of being minimally interested on its consequences. Democrats love this because it favors their base demographics, but that's how you get a Donald Trump too.

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MeetingsBrowser ◴[22 Oct 24 14:26 UTC] No.41914644[source]▶
I don’t think it’s right to put any sort of filter on which citizens are allowed to vote.

Any filter immediately becomes a tool to limit the number of voters for the opposition.

We already have arguments over what should be considered a felony , gerrymandering county lines, etc.

Seems like requiring a certain level of education would just incentivize more attacks on public education

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1. xienze ◴[22 Oct 24 14:43 UTC] No.41914799[source]▶
> I don’t think it’s right to put any sort of filter on which citizens are allowed to vote.

No, but we should require proof that you _are_ a citizen. And no, a flimsy attestation that certain groups fight tooth and nail against periodic verification of (see the arguments that come up every time the voter rolls need to be purged of the dead, people who’ve moved, or to ensure that no one lied about their citizenship status) isn’t a good solution.