this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2025
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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Even if you assumed the test successfully filtered out an educated voterbase, it would take all but five seconds for X party to cheat their exams, kind of like the "grandfather law" which essentially bypassed jim crow era literacy tests for everyone who was white.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 24 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Brazil had something like that in the early republic days, only literate people could vote. Needless to say, only the robber baron elites kept getting elected, also thanks to the significant amount of fraud that happened. "The election is won during the counting"

[–] Blujayooo@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Good point, maybe the idea works better in theory than practice. Haha

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 49 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Fuck no. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test

Between the 1850s 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 at their discretion based on race. Illiterate whites were often permitted to vote without taking these literacy tests because of grandfather clauses written into legislation.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

The problem there is the administration of the tests, not the tests themselves.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 12 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

And that is a non-solvable problem.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

We just need to make sure the voting machines are not racist. Solvable, if we're starting from scratch.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

The phrase "voting machine" is also a problem.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Only when accompanied by "paperless" or "closed source"

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Nope. It'll never work. Because when I walk into the voting booth, how do I KNOW FOR A VERIFIABLE FACT that this machine here in the booth with me is running the published software?

Computerized voting will always be a mistake.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 3 points 2 hours ago

The machine produces a physical paper record you can read, it doesn't matter what software it's running if you can verify your vote is accurate.

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 15 points 15 hours ago (8 children)

you think the current racist rich people wouldn't be racist and rich if we introduced an exam to the voting process?

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[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 3 points 10 hours ago

Still trying to figure out what happened in the second frame.

[–] eluvatar@programming.dev 52 points 20 hours ago (17 children)

Who determines the questions and answers? Now they are the ones determining who can vote and thus the people in control.

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[–] astutemural@midwest.social 7 points 15 hours ago

InB4 the Non-Voters just start doing the Wilmington Massacre repeatedly.

Check your history books about what happens when the majority of the population has no political voice. Things get ugly.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 39 points 22 hours ago

They used to do that in the US during the Jim Crow era. It went predictably.

[–] bremen15@feddit.org 22 points 22 hours ago (4 children)

It's not working. We have relatively equal education in Germany, and we have plenty of intelligent, educated people voting far right.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

“Educated” does not equal intelligent, and it certainly does not imply broad intelligence. You can train a relatively stupid human being to do all kinds of stuff and if you’ve ever worked with people with degrees you know what little value they carry.

I went to college and have white collar career and my family is largely university educated. I worked with structural engineers at my last job and half them were just barely able to do their jobs with the worst ones being the senior people. Elsewhere in the world there have been anti-vax doctors and nurses, psychotic therapists, and theologians who have read the bible who still do all the horrible things they definitely know are bullshit. I bet nearly half the people here on Lemmy know a software developer or three who shouldn’t ever touch a computer. People with degrees are more likely to be more intelligent but, especially while living in a world where they’re basically expected, that’s really just not a guarantee.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 4 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Even people who are actually smart buy into fascism, though. It's not just a question of dumb vs intelligent, but of ethics.

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[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

Except the candidates would all be garbage anyways haha

[–] anon@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 11 hours ago

Candidates being all garbage is exactly what you'd expect when they're just pawns for the people actually running the government (i.e. owners of big corporations).

Since they're shit, they're not popular and can't achieve much on their own. When they're not useful anymore they can be blamed and replaced by the next puppet.

Of course they're also shit, exactly because they're in the pocket of the very wealthy. In the US it seems even impossible to gain any significant position without their blessing.

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