License to Vote?

[Jerrymac]

If we can require driver's ed for teens, then why not voter's ed?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20101227/cm_csm/351092

[deknow]

errrr, drivers ed is not required for teens (some states you can get your license a bit earlier if you have a drivers ed certificate, usually you can get better insurance rates).

but a required civics course for voting?  there is too much room for "bias" (note that the article, written by a Harvard history major, considers obama's inaugural speech "essential reading").  what do you think a "how to vote" course, taught by unionized teachers will teach?  how do you think a student with a conservative view (or simply conservative parents and no view of their own yet) will be treated in such a class?

deknow

[AllenF]

That sounds like it is on the same line as a poll tax or a poll test.

[asprince]

I agree that there is a lot of room for abuse or bias here but........so many people just vote for the candidate they are told to vote for. They have no idea what the candidate stands for and how their views agree or disagree with theirs. I love the shows where they ask random people on the street simple civic questions. Most do not have a clue but they can tell you who they are going to vote for but not what they stand for. If nothing else, people need to peal back the layers and fully understand party platforms and their agendas and not just the flap they hear on TV. An informed educated public will make better choices. I always liveed in the South and that is the way it has always been.

Steve     

[kathyp]

how about defunding all these idiot organizations that scrape people off the sidewalk to vote?  we already have an example of an organization that had, as part of it's mission, voter education.  they got federal funding for that, and other things that they claimed to be doing.  that group was ACORN, and we know how corrupt they are.

teach basic civics in school as we always have.  after that, people who care will vote.  people who don't, are better off left at home.

licensing would be a mistake, i think.  never mind the legal aspect, it would be another way for states to get money from folks.  it's not like they'd do it for free?  someone would pay,  either in fees or taxes.  besides, they can't keep the registration of voters straight as it is.  dead people decide elections.

[troutstalker2]

  In the U.S.A people have the right to be as stupid as they want to be.

David

[AllenF]

Then why do we have seat belt and helmet laws?

[Rosalind]

If we can require driver's ed for teens, then why not voter's ed?

I agree, bad idea. For lots of reasons, other than the ones other people mentioned:
-Plenty of American citizens are illiterate. There are college grads who are functionally illiterate. They still manage to work, pay taxes, contribute to the economy, fight for our country, and generally make the world a better place. I happen to think they deserve some say in government.
-Historically, voter tests of any kind have been used to limit voting to people of a certain skin color, gender and income level. Why not let only the demographic most likely to be college educated vote? Oh, wait...that would disqualify a whole bunch of Congresscritters...
-Voting right now has lots of troubles: machine inaccuracy, ballots being lost/miscounted, the folks who count the ballots being prejudiced, voter registrations thrown out illegally, voting machines lacking an auditable paper trail, poor voting machine security, poor voting equipment, not enough equipment per voter in some districts with state-of-the-art oversupply in other districts...There's no shortage of practical problems to solve that could help voting be fairer in a concrete way.
-There's no cure for stupid.
-There's no cure for unethical or immoral.
-Voter education would not make our choices of Stupid vs. Evil any better.

Actually, now that I think about it, maybe we need Candidate Ed. :
Lesson 1: Do not take money from lobbyists
Lesson 2: Do not take bribes from lobbyists
Lesson 3: Do not take golf outings, vacations, home repairs, cars, promises of a job after Congress, or the services of pretty ladies from lobbyists
Lesson 4: Keeping your underpants on...

[Jerrymac]

Don't need voters education. Even the most illiterate person out there can listen to the candidates and pick the one that mostly goes along with the individual's ideals. And then find out he was lying all along anyway. 

Perhaps everyone needs to be educated on body language and facial expressions in order to tell who is lying.

OH wait. That wouldn't have worked on B. Clinton. He thought everything he said was the truth. 

[iddee]

Rather than a test, how about past records. A felon isn't allowed to vote. Anyone with a recorded, certified IQ of say, 50 or less, not be allowed to vote.

Or a test such as feeding ones self with a fork, buttoning ones own shirt, ETC.

[AllenF]

But that test just cuts out 0.00001% of the population.   

[kingbee]

... a required civics course for voting? ...what do you think a ...course, taught by unionized teachers will teach?  how do you think a student with a conservative view ...will be treated in such a class?...

In a class on how to vote, I feel a unionized teacher will treat a student expressing conservative views just as shabby as that same student is currently treated by the same unionized teacher, especially if this teacher is pushing his or her own warped world view.   

The video of the current Egyptian President's supporters riding into town on camels and lashing out at democracy protesters with clubs, swords, and whips is a good example of how teachers' unions operate today, in order to burnish the shine on their own iron rice bowls.

The quicker Americans tempt or goad the teacher unions into dropping the guise and displaying their true colors, the quicker Americans will demand the total abolition of teacher unions.  Hey, don't look at me, this same tactic worked against slave owners, it will work against unionized public education just as well.  You do realize do you not that not all plantation masters planted cotton, some plant false ideas in the minds of children.

[sterling]

How about your voting license being the proof that you paid federal income taxes

[AllenF]

Then that cuts out 50% of Americans that pay no income taxes.

[Countryboy]

Why don't we go back to you having to be a landowner before you are allowed to vote?

It's easy for non-landowners to vote for tax increases that come from someone else's pocket.
The voting booth looks a whole lot different when you know that your taxes are going to go up if something passes.  (It makes the voting booth look a whole lot different when you know you will be paying the tax, but people who won't have to pay get to vote on it.)

[Bee Happy]

How about the same test that's required to obtain legal citizenship? A new minted legitimate US citizen usually knows more about our history and civics than the majority of our natural born high school grads.

[Vetch]

Actually, now that I think about it, maybe we need Candidate Ed. :
Lesson 1: Do not take money from lobbyists
Lesson 2: Do not take bribes from lobbyists
Lesson 3: Do not take golf outings, vacations, home repairs, cars, promises of a job after Congress, or the services of pretty ladies from lobbyists
Lesson 4: Keeping your underpants on...

Another one failed that test today.

[indypartridge]

The voting booth looks a whole lot different when you know that your taxes are going to go up if something passes. 

Ain't that the truth!  I remember happily voting FOR every school levy that came along prior to being a homeowner -after all, education was SO important. Then I bought my first home and suddenly those levies that were touted as "just a few pennies a day" became not just "real money", but "MY money".

[AllenF]

Pennies a day?  Tell them to count it again.   

[sterling]

The county I own property in put a TEMPORARY $25 wheel tax on all vehicles about twentyfive years ago to go for education. Two years later they put another Temporary $25 wheel tax for education. Never explained what they did with the money from the first one. From that I learned TEMPORARY is a long time because we still have both $25 wheel taxes in place = $50 a year. So last year they raised property taxes for guess what? To build a new school.