Anyone who thinks this can be resolved by tech or that it wouldn't target the specific people it did before is just kicking the can down the road.
The entrenched powers will have equally as much control over any tech used as they had over the proctors delivering the test before, and it ultimately doesn't matter which group they decide to exclude as a bid to maintaining their control (but they absolutely will target the same people as last time, and a bunch of other people for different reasons but the same goal).
Anything that filters voting benefits the faction that is already voted in when filtering is implemented. Whether or not that maps directly to a recognized political party has more to do with a given nation's media and propaganda sophistication than any actual power held by specific ideological adherents.
With technology available Iâm sure we can do better today - not that those in power would enable anything that would lead to a more engaged or educated electorate: they love the status quo as they benefit from it all day
Yea, but not in the way you think. With the technology available, the people in power would be able to disenfranchise the people they dont want voting based on way more factors than just skin color.
I mean, that's kind of like saying, back in the days doctors would just drain your blood under the guise of treating sicknesses so let's just never build any hospitals ever, or something.
Obviously the US had some incredibly shitty restrictions on voting in the past, I don't think that is proof that any regulation on voting is bad by default, though. Of course, given the way politics are in your country right now nobody will ever agree on what's a 'reasonable' approach to do something like this anyway so it's more of a thought exercise than anything, I suppose.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have the perfect solution to this. I just find the modern 'democratic' process rather silly, with how bribes are straight up legal, lies and false promises by politicians are also legal, there are essentially no professional qualifications to run for key decision making positions in the government, and the only qualification to have a say in the political process is to have a pulse.
Like, there's more 'barriers to entry' for fast food kitchen jobs than there are to becoming a mayor or something. I genuinely don't understand how people don't have a problem with that.
It's not just that we haven't invented the process that would work, it's that the idea is fundamentally detrimental to an egalitarian society.
The point of universal sufferage is not to create the most optimal government by consensus. That would be dumb. The point of universal sufferage is that every person, by default, has a tiny sliver of influence over the government, such that politicians have to appeal to them.
As an example, if you disallow people without high school educationa from voting, then politicians have much less incentive to make sure that there are jobs programs accessible to high school.dropouts, because high school dropouts have essentially no influence on whether they get elected.
As far as qualifications for office go - essentially any qualifications can be weaponized against someone to prevent the people you don't like for running for office. It's the responsibility of the voters to vote for a capable candidate, by whatever criteria they think is reasonable.
Which could then weed out the uneducated... at least as far as the chosen topic goes. The potential voter might research the candidates and understand their platforms, but might not have any formal education in math.
The point is that "uneducated" is not the same as "uninformed". And there's no known way to test people to see if they are informed enough to vote without introducing the risk of discrimination and abuse.
I'm suggesting that you should realize that the fact that no one has been able to come up with something means it's either impossible or much more difficult than "just as everyone the same questions."
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u/CanKaNoReyCropper 1d ago
Ah! Then you'll love the American South! We had tests to cast your ballot, and they were sure-fire great.
Here's how it worked:
A white guy casting his ballot is asked to spell the word 'the'.
The back guy after him is asked to spell the word 'antidisestablishmentarianism'.
It was... not great.
But the devil's in the details and I'm sure you have a foolproof fair system that cannot be abused or misused or unfair in any way, shape or form...