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5
6
Yes No
Debate Score:11
Arguments:9
Total Votes:11
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 Yes (4)
 
 No (5)

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brycer2012(1002) pic



Should competency tests have to be passed before voting

I don't mean in a country like the United States where all people can vote. In a hypothetical situatuation should people have to prove that they know some knowledge about their country and the candidates before they are allowed to vote?

Yes

Side Score: 5
VS.

No

Side Score: 6
2 points

In a hypothetical sense, Yes. I do believe that competency tests should be issued before one can attain the right to vote. However, in the United States, this would never happen. Issuing competency tests would conflict with the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. I remember walking into my first period class the day after the 2008 election. People walked in saying that we all were going to die because a "Muslim" had taken office, and not that politely either. They seemed to have only gotten their facts solely from the McCain campaign website, if they ever researched the candidates at all. You have the right to vote in this country, although the Constitution does not specifically grant everyone the 'Right' to vote, but I beg the general public to PLEASE do some research on your options before going out to the polls and voting on an arbitrary whim.

Side: yes
zproach(252) Disputed
1 point

What you are saying doesn't really support the main resolution. You're saying that it would be nice for people to do their research and be competent; a sentiment that I agree with. This doesn't support compulsory competency tests; the idea that people are going to be forced to pass a test in order to voice their opinion of a how a government should be selected.

Also if you look at the 15th, 18th and, 26th amendments do grant people the right to vote; just saying...

Side: No
1 point

Yes absolutely! you don't need to be a rocket scientist but a little knowledge of the workings of the Government would be nice, you should know how to spell potato (I hit spell check) and know how much tax the state and federal government get for a gallon of gas.

Side: yes

Yeah..., I mean, you don't want some idiot voting. Especially since there are so many of them ;)

Side: yes

If idiots are voted in, which is probably the need for these tests because idiots vote, but why can't there be idiots voting. Therefore, people have the choice to be idiots, and so they should have the right to vote despite being a idiot.

Side: No
1 point

No, it goes against the core of democracy. A government can't attribute suffrage to competency because there is no objective way to measure what competency is. What competency entails is different to every individual; a baker doesn't need to know our political system just the same as a senator doesn't need to know how to bake bread. The core idea of democracy is that everybody gets one vote; that everybody uses their own value system to define what is correct for a government to be doing. By creating a competency requirement for voting an arbitrary value to suffrage is created. Furthermore commissions would have to be created to regulate these tests which opens up an opportunity for abuse of the voting system by unsavory government officials. This has already been shown plausible by Jim Crow laws in the South and biased literacy tests created with the sole purpose of reducing black suffrage.

Side: No
brycer2012(1002) Disputed
1 point

"...it goes against the core of democracy..."

If you notice the description of the debate, I specifically asked not to compare this debate that of any nation. It's hypothetical, do not compare it to a democratic nation. Just a place that happens to be a country that no one knows about. The literacy tests would only ask about the country and the candidates.

Side: yes
zproach(252) Disputed
1 point

"...it goes against the core of democracy..."

This whole debate talks about democracy... which we can safely assume is what the debate is discussing because it mentions voting. If there is voting in a nation that nation is democratic --that is what being democratic is. I used the literacy text example because it shows the negative repercussions of requiring voters to pass a competency test in order to secure their suffrage.

Side: No

The procedure would take too long and a waster of taxpayer money.

Side: No