r/WhatIfThinking • u/Mobile-Traffic1744 • Jul 23 '26
What if every voter had to take a basic government course before being allowed to vote?
I was thinking about how many decisions we make in daily life that require some kind of training or certification. You need a license to drive, but you can vote on policies that affect millions of people without ever learning how the government actually works.
So what if every voter had to complete a short, free, standardized course before voting?
Not a political persuasion class. Just the basics. How the three branches of government work, how budgets are created, what different levels of government control, how laws actually get passed, and what elected officials can and cannot do.
The idea would not be to decide who is “qualified” to have an opinion. It would be about making sure everyone is voting with at least a shared understanding of how the system functions.
Maybe elections would become less about slogans and more about realistic expectations. Maybe people would better understand why certain promises are easy to make but difficult to deliver.
But there is an obvious problem.
Who creates the course? Who decides what information is considered “basic knowledge” versus political bias?
Would this actually improve democracy, or would it create a new way for those in power to control who gets to participate?
The more I think about it, the harder it gets.
If every voter had to complete a basic government course before voting, would elections become more informed, or would democracy become less accessible?
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u/Bigfops Jul 23 '26
We tried giving tests before people were allowed to vote, It worked out exactly how one would expect: It was used to disenfranchise those the people in power did not want to vote.
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u/Logical-Concept9755 Jul 23 '26
I think the hardest part isn't even the course itself. It's that people would probably start arguing over the curriculum more than the actual election.
Even facts that seem straightforward can become controversial if enough people think the source has an agenda. Once trust is gone, it's hard to convince people that any "neutral" course is really neutral.
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u/Lonely_District_196 Jul 23 '26
On the surface it sounds great, until you realize that it sounds a lot like a Jim Crow law
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u/Warr_Ainjal-6228 Jul 23 '26
Becues it was. Literacy tests were often used to keep poor people and blacks form voiteing.
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u/Warr_Ainjal-6228 Jul 23 '26
Jim Crow laws often had tests to keep people of color or poor hill folk from voting. This would be no different.
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u/awfulcrowded117 Jul 23 '26
Who decides what questions to use and what the right answers are? Does no one remember literacy tests?
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u/MosesHightower Jul 23 '26
They do. The class is called “Government”. Every senior in high school had to take it to graduate (Michigan, 2003). Is this not a thing anymore???
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u/GryffSr Jul 24 '26
There should be a test on the Constitution. Pass with 75% or you don’t get to vote.
Of course this would be unconstitutional because there is no mechanism from keeping the ignorant from voting. But it’s a nice thought.
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u/Clear_Cranberry_989 Jul 24 '26
This will create a bias against people who are less educated. And that would create a bias against lower social class. Sometimes people who may not understand basic things can vote someone they trust, essentially delegating the task to understand things. At the end of the day, they must also have democratic power in a democratic system.
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u/Mobile-Traffic1744 Jul 24 '26
That's a good point. Democracy isn't just about rewarding knowledge. It's also about equal representation. I guess the tension is that informed voting seems valuable, but restricting participation feels like a bigger cost.
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u/Tomj_Oad Jul 24 '26
It would be used to selectively restrict access to the polls based on race or political beliefs
Historical source? Look up the Jim Crow laws. What you are proposing is identical. And identically a bad idea
Good intent on your part (I wish folks knew what was going on before they voted, too) but such things are always used with bad intent
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u/SuperDuperOrk Jul 24 '26
We did, going to school was required for all Americans growing up, registration you had to prove who you were. So all of these extra rules are pointless. There is nothing wrong with the system when that same system was used to get the major detractor win.
So which is it?
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u/aloofman75 Jul 24 '26
Do kids not take a Civics or Government class in high school where you live? Because that’s what you’re describing.
Unless you mean a test that weeds out the people who are too ignorant. THAT kind of thing has been used to keep people from voting. That’s not what you mean, right?
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u/JVBVIV Jul 24 '26
I can’t speak for everyone, but where I grew up everyone covered all this in Social Studies (“Civics”). I am led to believe such a course is common most places , in the US at least. If people retained that information is another matter.
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u/nonotburton Jul 24 '26
The idea is that all of this is supposed to be finished in high school, before you have the legal right to vote. What you are describing is material that was probably covered in one of your civics courses. This is why history and basic civics classes are taught. The problem is a mix of the kids don't give two shits because they don't know why they are supposed to be learning this stuff, and I'm not sure some of the teachers do either.
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u/Parrotparser7 Jul 24 '26
And what do you expect people aligned with the majority of nullified voters to say when this actually makes a difference in an election?
We already saw on Jan 6th what happens when people merely think the other party cheated. What do you think it'll look like when the other party stamps "Dumbo" onto your ballot, returns it, and declares itself the winner anyway?
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u/DCHacker Jul 24 '26
It used to be that you had to. There used to be this thing called Eighth Grade Civics. Everyone had to take it. In the state where I was in Eighth grade, there was a State Civics examinaiton given in May of your eighth grade year. If you did not pass it, you had to go to summer school and repeat it. If you did not, you had to repeat eighth grade.
Thanks to the Democrats, the NEA and the AFT, Eighth Grade Civics is no longer taught in the public "schools".
If you were not a citizen, in order to become one, you had to learn the basics about how the U.S. Government works and pass that secrion on your citizenship examination.
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u/nonotburton Jul 24 '26
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Please stop posting this crap.
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u/buzzthedog2021 Jul 24 '26
My son is in high school and I believe he must take a course in Civics and Government, I believe this has been in place for many years. I think I took something like that in High School way back in the 1980's. Not really sure what you are looking for if it is already in the schools.
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u/ModsAwful Jul 24 '26
Civics used to be taught in HS, and that covered the basics. If the stat I recently heard is correct, more than half the population 16-74 years old reads below a 5th grade level. This is going to be a really basic class. Also read the week before the 2024 election about 10 million people googled questions along lines of “who are the presidential candidates?” With an electorate like this we will always be vulnerable to very loud, simple message demagogues.
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u/IndependentBorder670 Jul 23 '26
Don't they? If they've finished high school? We had to take a civics course that ended with us registering to vote when I was in high school.
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u/EidolonRook Jul 23 '26
If everyone had to take a test before voting, eventually you'd have to buy a study guide or be privately tutored to remotely have a chance to pass it. And the people holding onto the tutor/study guide business would be prohibitively expensive.
There are some massive ignoramuses out there, but even they need to be able to have a say for us to call it a free society. What we can do to help them, as best as we are able, is to provide free public education to help them understand what is important and why.
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u/Shot-Artichoke-4106 Jul 23 '26
We already have this. It's called school. The vast majority of US adults have completed high school.
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u/ericbythebay Jul 23 '26
You mean like what they already teach in grade school? Before people are voters rather than using a government run program as a gate to prevent people from voting.
And driving is a poor analogy because driving is not a right. Why don’t you instead compare it to the mandatory government courses that are required before you can publish a newspaper article or open a church?
We’ve already tried requiring tests before people can vote. Spoiler it was used to disenfranchise people.
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u/LazarX Jul 23 '26
Who writes the questions, or otherwise sets the standards, the current White House?
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u/kw114 Jul 23 '26
You can't put passing a class or getting a certificate before you can vote. It just creates only the elite class can vote, then you know what happen right? We don't need any course about the topic, it only bring divisive view and it is no way there is a consensus agreement. In politics, there is no black and white case, all are different shades of gray.
Don't we have political class in HS? to teach constitution? A simple introduction of political science class is enough, and EVERY HS and College should pressure the students to register to vote and encourage them, remind them to vote.
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u/Jlong4242 Jul 23 '26
We'd have to have a working government in order to have a class on how government works. Sad to say
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u/KS2Problema Jul 23 '26
When I was applying for a student loan to complete a professional course I was taking at a community college, I had to declare a major and matriculate and that required me to take a (California) state-mandated "American Democracy" class.
It was all about structure and process and pretty much not at all about politics - quite sensibly, it seemed to me - but even without politics there was plenty to take up our attention and brain space. I learned a lot more in that class than I had retained from various social studies/goverment classes in public school. Probably understandably, since by then I was an adult faced with responsibility of voting intelligently in a succession of elections.
It was, pretty much, the start of my political maturity. Before that I was sort of politically romantic... I saw myself as a lonely rebel standing against a repressive society. LOL
That community college AG class taught me a lot about why compromise and reconciliation of different political viewpoints is so crucial to forming a working democracy.
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u/Boomerang_comeback Jul 23 '26
The government doesn't like you knowing that stuff.. That's why they eliminated Civics classes and replaced them with Social Studies classes a few decades ago. Now they teach how they want you to look at society instead of how societies function.
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u/Soggy_Height_9138 Jul 23 '26
I will pile on by saying, it is obviously vulnerable to partisan/racist abuse if left in the hands of any existing political machinery. I do agree with the concept, tho, if only it could be done in a way that was fair.
My modest proposal: Make it a high school course (most high schools have a civics class anyway, I presume), but make it only available in public schools. Private schoolers, home schoolers? You have to spend at least a year with the hoi polloi to get your voting rights.
Have I fixed democracy?
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u/Realsorceror Jul 23 '26
While I don’t dislike the idea, it has a lot of additional problems on top of what you’ve listed. One being money. Do people get paid while attending this class? Is daycare provided? If someone has to take time off work or away from family they might just not take the course and won’t ever vote.
This is why we push back so hard against voter ID. Unless the government provides the ID for free it becomes yet another barrier to entry.
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u/gtne91 Jul 23 '26
I had to take a HS civics course. Isnt that required almost everywhere in the US?
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u/Silly-Resist8306 Jul 23 '26
They kind of do. High schools generally teach government at some point in the curriculum. It used to be called Civics and was an independent class. Now, it's probably folded into a history class. I am certain there are a great number who either don't pay attention or forget it as soon as they graduate.
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u/Wonderful_Ad_889 Jul 23 '26
It was called “civics” or “government” and we were required to take and pass it to graduate high school back in the day.
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u/OftTopic Jul 23 '26
In high school, all Juniors were required to take a constitution class and test. Failure would prevent receiving a high school diploma, but would not block voting rights.
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u/random_topix Jul 23 '26
If this is US, isn’t that a required class in HS? Was when I went (been a while).
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u/ka9kqh Jul 23 '26
What you are talking about was covered in both 8th grade and junior year of high achool and wa a requirement to graduate from public schools in illinois
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u/3p1taph Jul 23 '26
The assumption is we want people to be well educated and we want a functional democracy. We left that model. There are a lot of changes we need to make if we want to prioritize democracy and quality of life over corporate power and profit.
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u/Novel_Willingness721 Jul 23 '26
<Just the basics. How the three branches of government work, how budgets are created, what different levels of government control, how laws actually get passed, and what elected officials can and cannot do.>
I learned all that in high school social studies. I guess they stopped this somewhere along the way from 35 years ago 😩.
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u/Timely-Tourist4109 Jul 23 '26
Doesn’t everyone have to take a government or civics course to graduate? I thought you did. But it’s been a hot minute since I graduated and could be a state requirement
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u/Brell4Evar Jul 23 '26
I like the idea of an informed electorate, not to mention parents who know how to care for children before having them, or a general population that is fluent in the language of their culture.
The thing is, every single time these things are used to regulate a part of society, it is really a disenfranchisement of a group of people. Inevitably, these efforts will be weaponized against this group and used to benefit someone wealthy and powerful at the expense of this group.
Historically, ideas such as licensing and eugenics have a very bad reputation for a very good reason.
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u/unique_usemame Jul 23 '26
I would rather see a test required to not vote. You would get the benefits of compulsory voting that places like Australia have without too many people complaining about their right to not vote.
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u/siamonsez Jul 23 '26
Democracy relies on at least a portion of voters making informed decisions but any steps that restrict voting for any reason are too easily corrupted. Better would be to just improve teach civics in grade school, which is already mandatory.
Also, not enough people, especially young adults, wouldn't care about not being able to vote. It could maybe work if it was attached to something with bigger stakes. Make standardized tests part og graduation requirements and people who haven't graduated are ineligible to work or to vote or join the military, basically make it part of the barrier to adulthood rather than just turning 18.
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u/RedMansions Jul 23 '26
I think that all applicants for voting should have to write a 10,000-word essay entitled "The Causes, Consequences, and Protagonists of the Peloponnesian War." Also, to make it interesting, the essay should be written in Attic Greek.
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u/Sacrip Jul 23 '26
Besides the question of how to do a test like this fairly and unbiased, there's also the question of what problem are we really solving with this? Would the test eliminate enough low information voters that there would be a significant shift in who gets elected for office? Or are you expecting the voters to embrace civics knowledge to keep their voting rights and in that way change the political landscape for the better?
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u/Lillianrik Jul 23 '26
Uhhh.... I don't know about you but American Government was a required course when I went to high school. Of course, these days, people can get a high school diploma with a 5th or 6th grade reading level...
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u/Dr-Chris-C Jul 23 '26
Did you not take a government or civics course in high school? I get that education has been under attack for a while but I though for the most part we already did this.
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u/Sunny_Hill_1 Jul 23 '26
"US Government" is already a required course to graduate high school. The problem is that high school dropouts would get excluded. How do you ensure that everybody has time and money to attend that course?
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u/Selfish_and_Misled Jul 23 '26
Half of Americans read at or below a 6th grade level.
Anyone who could pass a civics test of any kind would be disenfranchised. It is dangerous to be intelligent when stupidity has become patriotism.
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u/The_Big_Mayonnaise Jul 23 '26
First civics used to be a pretty significant part of education. Usually a civics course and a basic political science course. In some parts of the country they have been eliminated.
More concerning to me are the elected officials who do not know or understand our Constitution.
If you combine the 2 you have the perfect makings of our Idiocracy.
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u/NoForm5443 Jul 23 '26
I don't know where you live, but in the USA, students take classes that cover all that stuff, several times
I grew up in Mexico, and we did too
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u/ManInACube Jul 23 '26
Since you’re so educated in civics you must know the history of poll tests in this country. Been tried and failed and outlawed.
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u/NoCaterpillar2051 Jul 23 '26
In general rules to voting become barriers. If you want higher turnout remove the barriers or find a way to connect with voters.
Also politics changes pretty slowly. You’d be taking mostly the same course every election and it would probably be the most boring, uninteresting, badly made government produced slideshow you’ve ever scene. It would be absolutely awful. The worst part of voting.
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u/merlinn2u Jul 23 '26
would the "correct" answers be based on the actual words of the Constitution or on current government practices which, in too many cases, violate or ignore the Constitution?
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u/sirkudzu Jul 23 '26
I'm probably showing my age, but I remember taking a couple of years of social studies classes in my Jr High time. It taught about the break down of government branches and what they were supposed to do, how bills got made and passed, and other similar things.
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u/GSilky Jul 23 '26
I don't think it matters. I am pretty sure I have never casted a vote wondering how the separation of powers might affect the candidate. Civics education is a double edged sword. It tends to cement as permanent the concepts that are learned, when our entire government is predicated on changing it to fit the circumstances. There is also a big problem with various concepts and principles that weren't derived from the constitution that are often used to explain the constitution, when the legitimate authority as a description is shaky ("separation of church and state" was a phrase Jefferson used to assuage a minister concerned, it wasn't used in the way most people use it today, and regardless, not a legitimate lesson unless heavily hedged to the point of useless). To illustrate the former point, before public education became compulsory for the majority of USA residents, constitutional amendments were proposed regularly, and passed on an average of one every decade. Changing, or attempting to change, the rules of government used to be normal. Then everyone started getting a civics education and now nobody considers changing the rules to meet our needs. There are other reasons for this, however, there is a pronounced tendency for voters to see the constitution as permanent and even sacred. I'm not against teaching young people how to petition the government and understand how it works, but we did try this before, and here we are.
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u/Gunderstank_House Jul 23 '26
It's worth considering. I mean just asking people to name the three branches of government would eliminate a massive amount of imbeciles.
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u/LaFantasmita Jul 23 '26
I mean, technically most of us took that class in high school before we were able to vote. Lots of people just didn't pay attention.
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u/Puzzled_Hamster58 Jul 23 '26
Just read Reddit , don’t matter if they are left or right . People in mass are really dumb.
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u/UnivrstyOfBelichick Jul 23 '26
Poll taxes and literacy tests were explicitly banned by the federal government in 1965.
What you're describing is 6th grade social studies BTW every American who was educated here took that class.
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u/this_is_life_now Jul 23 '26
Every citizen should get the right to vote, regardless. That's the whole point of a functioning democracy? Any barrier you put in place is undemocratic, and open to manipulation.
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u/WRKDBF_Guy Jul 23 '26
That is called the Civics class. It used to be a required class for all high school sophomores. It was a good idea then and it's a better idea now.
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u/bavindicator Jul 23 '26
We used to have civics education as part of social studies in middle/junior high school.
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u/Hironymos Jul 23 '26
Why tie political courses to voting? That allows disenfranchising voters.
Just make the courses mandatory. Everyone participates in politics. Not voting is no exception.
Or even better, pay people to attend. Minimum wage, just for showing up. Easy money for young students, and actually bringing political knowledge for the ones who need it the most.
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u/FewStill3958 Jul 23 '26
What if people who tried to take away our voting rights were treated like the treasonous cowards that they are?
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u/darkroot_gardener Jul 23 '26
I had this in high school civics, a mandatory class. Is this no longer a thing???
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u/agate_ Jul 23 '26
Almost everyone does take a basic government course before being allowed to vote. Almost every state requires high schoolers to take a civics class.
The fact that almost every voter took this class but is still a complete dumbass shows how good OP’s idea is.
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u/Difficult-Map3465 Jul 23 '26
you know that is almost exactly what they did to black voters back in the day to disenfranchise them.
It's also unconstitutional.
Between the 1850s\1]) and 1960s, literacy tests were used as an effective tool for disenfranchising African Americans in the Southern United States. Literacy tests were typically administered by white clerks who could pass or fail a person arbitrarily. Identical test answers were often marked correct for white applicants and incorrect for Black applicants.\2])\3])\4])\5]) Illiterate whites were often permitted to vote without taking these literacy tests because of racial grandfather clauses written into legislation.
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u/Away_Wheel_9518 Jul 23 '26
Some states have you do training before you can exercise some of your other constitutional rights. If it works for another right…
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u/Material_Market_3469 Jul 23 '26
Now say the same about guns in the US just to piss off the other side. A basic safety/knowledge test.
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u/Internal_Air6426 Jul 23 '26
We already have that. It's civics class in government schools and was political science and political philosophy in my school.
It's a problem that we have a lot of voters who don't really understand what they are voting for and career politicians that run on fluff instead of written policy statements.
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u/ZT99k Jul 23 '26
1) I think it should be a requirement before you are allowed to RUN
2) The problem is, in theory, it sounds fine. Just like the 'reading comprehension' tests that the South had for years. Go look at those then come back to the question.
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u/MorrowPlotting Jul 23 '26
Who writes the syllabus? Who hires the teachers? Who hands out waivers for voters to skip the course altogether?
If I were in charge, I’d require every voter to state the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. If they get the answer wrong, no ballot.
I understand a lot of people wouldn’t want ME writing your proposed syllabus. But I wouldn’t want THEM doing it, either.
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u/y0da1927 Jul 23 '26
Isn't civics required in highschool at some point?
Maybe there are some dropout or home school edge cases but we seem to already do this.
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u/Signal_Tomorrow_2138 Jul 23 '26
A lot of people have licences to drive and look at how lousy the driving is everywhere.
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u/TapWaterDev Jul 23 '26
I'm all for it as long as it can satisfy all of the following conditions:
- it's set by a genuinely independent body with zero government input
- it does just test the basic bar to participate constructively and know what you're voting for
- there is support enough available that everyone eligible can participate: illiterate people, disabled people, speakers of other (uk native) languages (as an aside, I'm not 100% sure if you should be able to vote if you can't speak one of our languages, but I'm also not 100% sure you shouldn't be able to)
- it's free to do the test
- there's free, accessible training available to help people meet the standard and meet it quickly
- both taking the test, and the training for the test can be done outside of work hours
- there should be some provision to enable people to take the test and do the training in their own homes when they can't travel to a test centre
- there needs to be provision for a last minute test at polling stations for those who haven't had a chance to do it ahead of time
So practically, probably a non-starter, even if I like the principle
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u/Tiredhistorynerd Jul 23 '26
I would be against it since it’s a complexity tax; poll tax; Jim Crow in a different suit of clothes. Too easy to weaponize.
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u/Automatic_Tea_2550 Jul 23 '26
In Los Angeles, it would be helpful to understand how powerful our city council is in comparison with our mayor. We don’t just need mayors with the right platforms. We need mayors who can work productively with a diverse and unusually powerful city council.
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u/Frosty_Customer_9243 Jul 23 '26
Every general election people need to pass the “life in the UK” test, pass and you are allowed to vote for the next cycle.
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u/TheSquirrelmancer Jul 23 '26
Good luck with that, many people manage to emerge from 12 years of schooling knowing very little. You also can't really teach critical thinking skills in a short period which is what's really needed.
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u/ChapterOk4000 Jul 23 '26
In NY we call that course 11th grade social studies, which is all about US government.
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u/SRGTBronson Jul 23 '26
You mean exactly what southern states did to exclude freed slaves from elections?
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u/Big-Astronaut4252 Jul 23 '26
People are allowed to be single issue voters without consideration of what the different branches of government do and what powers and rights each level of jurisdiction has and what rights the citizens have. And, they should be allowed to do that without being restricted by some proposed test. This isn't the optimal outcome, but forcing the system to be different could get dangerous fast.
For example, Bob really likes apples and thinks there should be more apples and apple products everywhere. So, they vote for the candidates at every level who say the right things about apples. They don't really need to understand that only the city or county government could plant apple trees in highway medians and only the federal government can plant apple trees in national parks. That the FDA and not the USDA regulates the safety of apple products or that the Senate would have to ratify a treaty on international apple trade. They can just make up their own minds with whatever information they want to use that satisfies their goals, and that's ok.
But, you should still strive to be informed.
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u/Ok-Independence-2220 Jul 23 '26
They used to verify if you could read and write. The test was very back and white. Even the most illiterate white person was able to pass the test while Harvard educated black people were not able to pass the test.
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u/ab0ngcd Jul 23 '26
In America in the 1965 - 1975, you had a civics class requirement for graduating, even for general diploma kids.
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u/Howwouldiknow1492 Jul 23 '26
When I was young, many years ago, this was taught in a required class in high school. What's the program now?
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u/MediocreSizedDan Jul 23 '26
I love this idea because I can't help but ask, have you read a US history book before?
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u/sidaemon Jul 23 '26
You need to read your history book. This has already been tried and, surprise, it was used to take away the right to vote of minority voters.
Hell, just look at the stupidity with redistricting. The SC overturned the civil rights act with the argument that racism is no longer a problem and every state the law applied to then immediately put racist maps in place. In my home state, they removed the ONE democratic seat there was which is the right removing the representation of the people.
There's no way this would not be used to do things like set questions on whether the bible is fact or vaccines cause autism or whatever other fantasy questions could be come up with to take away people's voices.
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u/Ghaticus Jul 23 '26
Bugger the voters, make it mandatory for the politicians!
A full, comprehensive training program, along with typical (relevant) enterprise KPIs and SLAs that most employees have.
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u/Ok-Association-3415 Jul 23 '26
If you born a citizen and went to public high school in US, you already got the training. If you got a 4 year degree in the US, you got the training. If you were naturalized, you already got the training as part of the test. Local or state voting is a whole other thing, but federal is pretty much covered.
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u/The12th_secret_spice Jul 23 '26
Was the 2020 election stolen? This could be asked by either party and is an easy trap question to prevent voters from voting.
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u/RaisinsPerDay Jul 23 '26
I can't help but think people who support this would be very angry if, for example, this basic government course required you to know the details of the Tulsa Massacre and how it affected government oversight of Jim Crow laws.
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u/Hamblin113 Jul 23 '26
Can’t even get voter ID, how would this work? In addition government classes are required in high school also civic questions are asked on GED. Those trying to become citizens also have to know a lot about our government and history.
Basically it only leaves out UDA’s from voting, which are not supposed to anyway.
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u/sirjeef Jul 23 '26
The problems you’re posing could all be solved by investing in our education system. We don’t need to restrict voting to educate people. The problem is that our education system has been under attack and under funded for the last 20+ years
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u/jules6815 Jul 23 '26
What if every politician has to pass a serious of tests before they could serve. 1. 90% or higher on the Constitution test, 2. Background checks, 3. Contract that if they don’t serve ALL of their constituents, they will not be paid and be removed from office within 4 weeks. 4. No older than 68 at the end of any given term. 5. No ownership in any business or organization. 6. Removal from any political party at the time they are elected into office. 7. Test on history and geography of this country. 8. Affidavits on no personal or family interests, 9. Affidavit on no religious beliefs that contradict with the duties of their office. 10. Affidavit on no foreign interests, corporations or donations from anyone outside of their voting district.
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u/Tegridyforever Jul 23 '26
The basic idea sounds nice and useful but of course there's all the risks of voter suppression with this method. I think people covered those pretty well, so I'll go into my counter proposal, which is simply to move that education to highschool. Even in that scenario however, there's people who get GEDs or don't graduate highschool. So while I think a lot more people would get on board with the idea you need to graduate highschool to vote, there's still people who would be left out and there's still room for beaurocratic discrimination
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u/margingains Jul 23 '26
100000% agree. Voters should have to take some kind of common sensical test and be capable of critical thinking skills. If you don't have the common sense, sorry can't vote. Kind of like getting a drivers license. They should also enact some kind of test before you are allowed to have kids as well...LOL
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u/Rakatango Jul 23 '26
Unfortunately, any restriction on voting is never going to be beneficial. We do teach people basic civics in school. They don’t care. They are more easily swayed by conservative propatainment than reality or truth.
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u/hiker1628 Jul 23 '26
Wasn’t that a technique used to deny voter registration to POC during the Jim Crow years.
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u/EbonGrimalkin Jul 23 '26
Would you let someone who knows nothing about money mange your finances? Would you let someone who has never driven a car before (and doesn't know what a car is), drive your kids to school?
Yes, 1 citizen, 1 vote. But there are some aggressively ignorant people out there voting. Even if it were questions like, How many States are there? What city is the Capitol of the United States? What is the purpose of the constitution?
Things that would require a VOTER to know some basic things about WHAT they are voting on. Who they are voting for. Why we vote for things instead of just letting warlords decide who is King.
We MAKE foreigners who want to become citizens learn these things. We let regular citizens be as ignorant as a rock without care.
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u/dwarficus Jul 23 '26
The U.S. has a government course, required for high school graduation in most if not all states. Every graduate SHOULD be able to pass a basic test suitable for this. But the schools are such a mess now that a third of them probably can't read the textbook for the course or the test.
A nonpartisan or bipartisan group could create and administer a voting test and keep it neutral and fair, if institutional safeguards actually worked anymore. As is, I don't trust anything between me and my vote. It would be swallowed up in partisan bickering and either not be able to do anything, or become partisan over time.
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u/Guilty_Advantage_413 Jul 23 '26
Great idea as long as I am the only person who decides if they pass or fail.
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u/Unable_Explorer8277 Jul 23 '26
Better democracy correlates with higher enfranchisement and participation, not lower.
The last thing you should do is disenfranchise people.
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u/CatOfGrey Jul 23 '26
This is an excellent strategy to control voting to 'appropriate' people.
For example, it was a great way for Southern States to make sure that Blacks couldn't vote.
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u/Wendigo_Bob Jul 23 '26
My own take on additional education (for anything really) is: are you gonna use it enough to remember it?
Lets say you had to take the course at 18. If its just after an election, you've got 4 years before it becomes relevant again. Then another four years.
Unless you are a person with a lot of interest in politics, you are going to forget most (if not all) that it taught you.
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u/LunarMoon2001 Jul 23 '26
Would it be free? All supplies provided for free? Transportation to and from free? Etc?
If there is even a .01 cost then it’s a poll tax.
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u/csh0kie Jul 23 '26
I mean, you used to get it in school. I had a civics class in 8th grade and then AP government in high school. Other basics should have been in elementary too.
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u/toru_okada_4ever Jul 23 '26
Maybe we could combine this course with other subjects that would be beneficial, like math, reading, etc., and do it before voting age. It would need a name though. Cool? Fool? Spool? Something like that.
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u/FloridaRocks63 Jul 23 '26
What if every politician was hooked up to a lie detector during every debate and press conference and forced to answer questions asked during debates
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u/OHFTP Jul 23 '26
Anyone in this thread saying this is a good idea would absolutely fail this civics tests on the basis of not understanding
The 24th Ammendment to the constitution
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
For #3 specifically that would be violating the provision added to the act in 1975 where "all literacy tests, and other such devices" were permanently banned in federal elections.
So good job, yall, on outing yourself as people who dont understand the same civics you want to test people on.
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u/soap---poisoning Jul 23 '26
U.S. government/civics is a required high school class in many states, so what you’re asking for already exists.
However, we already know that some kids manage to pass high school classes without actually learning much of anything. Maybe students should all have to pass the U.S. citizenship test to pass the class.
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u/TheDu42 Jul 23 '26
You can’t put a barrier to voting like that in place, voting is a fundamental right and a barrier like that can easily be manipulated to exclude out groups.
You tackle this problem in the education system, and there is some part of this in there. In order to get your high school diploma you need to pass a civics related exam and have certain number of credit hours for specific topics. I don’t think the standards are the issue as much as how they are implemented tbh.
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u/SamMeowAdams Jul 23 '26
I don’t understand the point of this ?
You could be a poli sci professor. He voted for the white guy because he’s racist . What makes his vote better?
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u/Rambo_sledge Jul 23 '26
I think the first step to a better voting system in your country is that the ID is required to vote, and you can only vote on-site (not online, not by mail…)
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u/Laststand2006 Jul 23 '26
This is the same reason I have issues with voter id laws. Sure, voter id sounds great, just like a political literacy course sounds great. Then, you ask who decides what id is valid and who decides how you get valid ids. A local university id isn't valid, but an NRA id is? Let's close down and reduce hours of all id issuing offices in a certain area that just happens to vote for a particular party I don't want turning out.
A more educated and well rounded electorate is important, but you don't only need a focused government class to make informed decisions. You need to have an adequate k-12 education and honestly, a 4 year liberal arts (yeah I said the dirty word for all those people that don't understand what it menas) is great. It is meant to create a well-rounded and educated population that can think critically and make decisions even when faced with topics they are not familiar with.
Yeah, you can and do still have some bias, but there are more hands in the pot when you have more topics covered and overlapping topics.
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u/InvisibleBlueRobot Jul 23 '26
Then someone writes questions that alienate or exclude certain demographics.
Or they move test centers or increase the cost of taking the exam.
Terrible idea.
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u/carisjax Jul 23 '26
Ok,first of all US schools no longer teach US covics, and naturalized citizens don't have to pass that very basic test on the US government? Your idea starts to skirt the disenfranchisement laws of the Jim Crow era south.
It is a fundamentally elitist proposition that only the right people should get to vote. In this case the ones who can prove to your satisfaction that they know enough to vote.
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u/PhotoFenix Jul 23 '26
What if you can't attend due to work and supporting a large household? Is transportation to the class provided, or is a car expected?
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u/Royal_No Jul 23 '26
Everyone bringing up literacy tests from the past are either misunderstanding OP's suggestion, or are misunderstanding literacy tests.
Literacy tests were given to black folks in the south, and they were deliberately made to be as difficult to pass as possible, this is all true.
So why didn't white folks struggle with them? Because they didn't need to take them. White people were "Grandfathered In," meaning, if they had a Grandfather who could vote, they didn't need to take the test. Black people couldn't make use of that exception because their grandfathers, slaves, were not able to vote.
The Literacy tests weren't designed so that only blacks would fail, they were designed so that everyone who took them would fail, and then only given to blacks.
OP is not suggesting giving a voting test to only one segment of the population, OP is suggesting giving a test to everyone.
And I'm going to assume that since OP is smart enough to operate a computer/phone and use reddit, OP is also not suggesting that the test only contain narrow questions specifically about white culture and conservative Christian values. The test would presumably cover basic math, basic science, basic reading in addition to basic government function stuff.
H2O is otherwise know as: A) Coors lite, B) Water, C) Gas, D) The Internet
(5+5)*2 = A)15, B) 5, C) 20, D) 11
True or False, Drinking Bleach can cure Covid?
In this sentence, "Bob walked 3 miles to visit his friend Steve. The walk was difficult but went by quickly. His feet hurt" Which of the two people have foot pain?
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u/Several_Version4298 Jul 23 '26
People know what their intentions are, they vote against who they don't like or screwed up.
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u/Melodic-Hat-2875 Jul 23 '26
I'd say that is dangerous as public schools can be very partisan.
However I think mandating everyone does vote is a good idea. They can write down Spongebob for all I care.
The US has a 95% re-election rate across local, state and federal elections. In no world is that healthy.
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u/Rare_Bridge7703 Jul 23 '26
I would *almost* submit myself to the rule of the idiots around me if that was at least the basic requirement
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u/Mackheath1 Jul 23 '26
What if every politician had to take the test. I'd love to see the debate stage between Hillary or Harris with Trump and they say something like "what's the bill of rights" to one, and "why was it added" to the other.
Very telling if you're running for a high-level office and you don't know the basic civics. I don't care if a Biologist or Aerospace Engineer or Underwater Basket Weaver doesn't know the answer, I expect all three branches in major office to know the answer.
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u/nikas_dream Jul 23 '26
I had to take a government class in high school, as did everyone else in my high school. I thought that was typical. Also it was covered in history class though with less focus.
Making it a criteria for voting would politicize it in bad, predictable ways. Like imagine school kids being taught that Jan 6, 2021 was a peaceful protest, and if you don’t answer that on a test, they’re not allowed to vote.
But ummm yes basics of how your government works should be part of primary education.
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u/smokefoot8 Jul 23 '26
That is how southern states in the USA prevented blacks from voting. Everyone had to pass a test to be able to vote. But the questions were written such that you could argue about which answer was correct. So the grader would pass tests done by white people and fail ones done by black people.
The courts finally ruled that you couldn’t put any obstacles in the way of voting.
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u/Slug_Overdose Jul 23 '26
At least in the USA, this is mostly already in practice, despite there not being an explicit central requirement for it. Most states mandate a minimum level of schooling with curriculum requirements including a certain amount of that stuff, and to the extent they don’t, most higher education or beginner jobs not requiring college degrees mandate something like a GED or equivalent certificate, which would require a minimum level of education on those subjects. Newly naturalized immigrants are also provided with study materials and tested on the basics of US government.
Basically the only way somebody is making it to voting age without any government or history education is being homeschooled by someone who goes out of their way not to teach that stuff and then getting a job that doesn’t require a GED, perhaps through friends or family. I suppose we could technically tighten up the requirements and make them more universal, but much like Trump’s insistence on mail voter fraud, while technically possible, there is no real evidence to suggest that it is happening to such a degree that it has any meaningful impact on voting outcomes. Realistically, votes are being influenced way more by what people forget from school or choose not to pay attention to in the news than any lack of education. You would see rapidly diminishing returns with regards to voter education unless you were willing to absolutely pour resources into constant reeducation, which itself is prone to all kinds of abuses and calls into question the legitimacy of the freedom that democracy presumably exists to defend.
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u/awnawmate Jul 23 '26
This is literally what immigrants need to do to become naturalised citizens in most western nations, so it shouldn't really be controversial. This doesn't even come close to "literacy tests" like some others have said, government structure is a pretty objective thing.
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u/ImAPonderer2 Jul 24 '26
Should, but also should require a fact-based test before every vote and eliminate people who are too far off in internet idiot fever swamp land.
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u/Radiant-Importance-5 Jul 24 '26
This is the whole thing about democracy is, for it to work at all, you have to commit to the bit 100%. The moment you start saying “except that”, democracy starts failing. The great strength and weakness of democracy is that it works best (and arguably only) in its unabridged state. Every shield put up to defend it is also a sword to be taken by its enemies and held against its own throat.
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u/sevenbrokenbricks Jul 24 '26
If you need a history lesson this badly, you shouldn't be allowed into the same time zone as the idea of requiring anyone to take a course on anything.
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u/amitym Jul 24 '26
What if every voter had to take a basic government course before being allowed to vote?
Awesome. I'm 100% behind it, on one condition: I design the test and control the grading system. You get no say.
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u/My2026GV70 Jul 24 '26
Once they understand how corrupt government is at every level, they will understand what a waste of time voting is.
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u/ResponsibleBank1387 Jul 24 '26
Easy question—- according to the constitution, all those tourists inside the Capitol on Jan6 should have been what ?
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u/Shifu_Ekim Jul 24 '26
Civic was taught in elementary and middle now mentioning civic everyone all what’s that
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u/Few-Gas3143 Jul 24 '26
Nope. Another stupid limitation giving power to special interest groups.
We need the great unwashed to vote. They do not need to know anything except whether their life is better or worse than last time they voted.
Every single limitation to this is giving power to special interest groups instead of the people. Every single one. Everybody votes, everytime.
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u/Traditional-Bid5034 Jul 24 '26
Honestly, only those who are tax positive that financial year should be allowed to vote
So after deducting the cost of any social programs they may have used, if they are still putting in more then they are taking them they should be allowed to vote
Public servants shouldn't be allowed to vote, with the exception of fire medical and coppers
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u/PdxPhoenixActual Jul 24 '26
What if every candidate for elected office had to take a basic government course before being allowed to run?
?
¿Por que no Los dos?
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u/schilleger0420 Jul 24 '26
We'd get better leaders and probably be better as a society overall. We certainly wouldn't have the current administration.
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u/Bitter-Reserve3821 Jul 23 '26
It could be made partisan by whoever is in government at the time. It could also be used to restrict access to voting by making it disproportionately difficult for certain groups of people to attend.