by Skirita » Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:21 pm
I agree that voting, like jury duty, is a civic responsibility and should be required of all citizens.
However, I also believe that an uninformed vote is worse than no vote at all. In my private political utopia, voters would pick a candidate and then answer a short True/False quiz about that candidate's official, stated position or voting record on certain key issues, i.e. "This candidate voted in favor of the Iraq War Resolution HR 114", "This candidate voted in favor of the PATRIOT Act", "This candidate supports a woman's right to choose", etc.
If the voter answers the majority of questions correctly, their vote counts. If not, they obviously don't know a goddamned thing about their candidate and shouldn't be voting in the first place.
The idea is that this would force voters to look beyond "who looks better" and actually pay attention to what each candidate stands for.
That's my master plan. Flame away.
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." - W.B. Yeats