America Should Institute Voter Registration Test

Every election year America is repeatedly told to go out and vote. Every vote counts, so make sure you voice your opinion! But does everyone know what they are voting for?

Democracy is based on the principle that the people should decide who rules them. If the poor are being oppressed, they have the right to go out and vote against those who continue to oppress them. If citizens are against a war, it is their right (and, arguably, obligation) to cast their vote for the candidate that is committed to resolving conflict. Ideally, this is what democracy is. This system, however, assumes that everybody knows exactly what they are voting for.

That is not always the case.

Partly due to clever campaign tactics and partly due to voter ignorance, people often go to the ballot boxes with an incomplete, if at all existent, comprehension of the issues they are voting for. In fact, there is a book about voters in Kansas who continually vote Republican, despite being working class citizens who are pushed aside by Republican economic policies that cater to the rich. Essentially, they are voting against themselves.

Elections are, more or less, popularity contests in which the candidate with the most charisma and effective campaign team have the vast advantage. For this reason, I disagree with the common notion that everybody should vote. I think that only the people who know the issues they are voting for should vote. It is not fair that someone who has diligently read each candidate's proposals and, at the very least, has a good idea of the crucial issues, has the same vote as another who votes for a candidate because he seems "cool."

There should be a brief test to register to vote in America. I am not talking about a three-hour exam on history and politics, but a 20-minute quiz on both the issues and each candidate's position on them. That way, those who vote are voting for their true interests, not superficiality.

I realize that on some level this defeats the theory of free elections, but the point is not that the election should not be free, it should. Everybody has the opportunity to vote, because everybody has the opportunity to spend a little time and learn what they are voting for. Maybe then the people of Kansas would realize that the only ones they have to blame for their sub-par economic situation are themselves.