Jacob Francy, '26 & Henry Turberfield, '26
You should earn the right to vote (Henry):
In today's society, we constantly hear how everything going wrong is the government's fault and how they are too old or don't know what they’re doing. But our government is run on John Locke’s ideas of the people having rights and the right to overthrow the government. So if everyone thinks our government is terrible, what’s stopping Americans from overthrowing the government?
Americans don’t intend to overthrow the government because many Americans don't even know how the government works. According to a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, half of the Americans surveyed could not name all three branches of government; a fourth of those surveyed could not name one (Alec.org).
Four in ten people incorrectly said that the constitution gives the president the ability to wage wars. Twenty three percent of people thought the government could establish a country wide religion, even though our first amendment omits that (WasPost). Some adults don’t know facts a student in school could easily name.
The government is an easy target for people to pin their own problems and opinions on. Most people just indulge in the news and social media without knowing context or the current political situation. And in 2020, 157 million people out of 329.5 million voted. The same year this study was conducted was the same year almost half of the nation voted. That's millions of Americans who may not have known common facts about our own government. For the millions of Americans that do know how our government works and would like to participate in it, I propose a test to filter the amount of people voting. The people who don’t know basic facts about our government should not be allowed to participate in electing people to run it. If America is okay with testing immigrants about our country to allow them to enter, why shouldn’t we test our own American citizens for the ability to vote? Some might think this test is discriminatory towards those of lesser economic status, because they have limited education opportunities. But immigrants, no matter their status, are tested without taking into consideration their economic status, race, and their past experiences. 96% of immigrants pass the test, and re-examinations are allowed. Just because they have the opportunity to re-test doesn’t mean they get an advantage. Instead, they learn from what they got wrong and fix it. Those who were born in the United States have never had to test for citizenship. They are born and given rights without having to work for them. This is one of the great liberties of America but the lack of standard creates laziness. The average joe who works a 9-5 typically isn’t worried about the government for 3 years and 8 months until the next election occurs. The election will bombard the average joe into propaganda all over every outlet available, sometimes leading to a biased opinion based on that propaganda. Depending on that person's situation, they will either vote or not vote, which in this country is close to 50/50. This is why Americans need to be tested: to filter out these average joe’s who don’t care about the government.
The test would be administered by the same department that makes the test for immigrants. Anyone interested could find such tests at their capital building, other government official buildings, or even at the voting centers. Content would involve questions on how the government runs, who runs it, and who has control over what. In short, this might be similar to what an 8th grader would find on their test in History class. For the people who still want to vote but don’t know much about the government, online resources and libraries are always available for anyone to indulge in. Ideally, the test would push Americans to teach themselves and study about the government in a way that would be applicable and help them make a more educated and informed vote. What if Americans don’t have easy access to this? According to Pew Research, 97% of Americans own a cell phone of some kind, and according to Lib Guides, there are over 16,000 libraries across America in every major city.
No matter who you are or what your situation is, you should KNOW about the government. If you want to participate in the voting process, you can always take a simple accessible test to prove you are qualified to make an educated vote.
Everyone has the right to vote (Jacob):
Republican Presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, introduced a new idea that turned many heads. He has claimed that only citizens 25 and older should be able to vote, with exceptions like serving in the military. This debate has spiraled into a new conversation: Should we create a test in order to receive the right to vote? I say no.
To start, the United States was founded on the idea that everyone is given the same rights, whether it’s privacy, speech, religion, voting, or any other specified freedom covered under the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. Implementing any legislation to stop regular citizens 18 years old and up would most likely end up as a legal battle in the Supreme Court, due to the already-implemented voting rights given to all Americans.
Although I agree the average voter should become more educated about policy and what is in their true best interest, I also believe wholeheartedly that everyone deserves the right to express their opinion and have a say in our government. That’s the definition of a democratic republic: all the people decide. This would devalue citizens based on subjective testing and leave out millions of Americans from deciding our own leader, which would lead to an even larger division politically. With fewer people having a say, fewer people are represented by their own government!
Not only is this a human rights issue, but it can also be considered yet another target towards people in the lower class who don’t have the same resources to become as educated as the top one-percenters. There was a similar situation that came about in 1965. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was brought up by many civil rights activists like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. The South, at the time, used many loopholes in the laws of the original Civil Rights Act, stopping African-Americans from voting by using a system of testing that not even the average white American citizen would be able to guess correctly. This form of unfair treatment led to African Americans not being represented in the government. The Voting Rights Act was passed to ban all loopholes used by the southern states. This proves that by implementing said testing, this would once again reignite the flame of “unintentional” racial and class division in the country. With the tests, the whole government would become more white, male-dominated with less diverse groups being represented.
In conclusion, although it is extremely important to ensure voters are well informed, creating tests would give an unfair advantage to the already advantaged. Other ways to help citizens become more educated would be to create organizations or programs so all people can be informed, not just one class.
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