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I convince people to not vote. If I can convince you not to vote with a single argument, then your input is something our country doesn't need. I do not at an

I convince people to not vote. If I can convince you not to vote with a single argument, then your input is something our country doesn't need. I do not at any time stop them from voting; I only tell them it doesn't matter and they shouldn't waste their time. Everyone gets a vote, but I'm not losing any sleep when those who don't care enough to vote don't get their say recorded. (Of course there is a problem where people who want to vote are prevented from voting. This is an issue that needs to be fixed so that everyone who wants to vote can vote.)

Retra 11y ago
You should be convincing people to care, not to avoid voting. Besides, voting isn't supposed to be the place where you disenfranchise yourself. People who really care should run for office. ("Representative government" and all that.)
Jach 11y ago
So you draw the line at "desires to vote" rather than "is capable of answering a few trivia questions". But say passing the test was a requirement to vote, wouldn't the people who want to vote naturally proceed with studying for and taking the test, while those who don't want to won't be bothered since overcoming the obstacle is even greater than overcoming the resistance of mailing in a form or going to an actual booth? (Or perhaps using an app?) Thus the test would serve as a proxy for desire, with even more potential upsides according to GP. What would the distribution look like given no filter, filtering by test passers, and filtering by people who want to vote?
- Lawtonfogle 11y ago
  >But say passing the test was a requirement to vote, wouldn't the people who want to vote naturally proceed with studying for and taking the test, while those who don't want to won't be bothered since overcoming the obstacle is even greater than overcoming the resistance of mailing in a form or going to an actual booth? The problem is that any such test with answers could be inherently biased against some groups. 'Do I feel like going to vote today' is not biased in such a way as the person taking the test is the creator of the test itself. Imagine if there was a test to vote, but every person created their own test, answered their own test, and then scored their own test (and the test didn't have to make sense to anyone, including the person who created/took/graded it).

Retra 11y ago

You should be convincing people to care, not to avoid voting. Besides, voting isn't supposed to be the place where you disenfranchise yourself. People who really care should run for office. ("Representative government" and all that.)

Jach 11y ago

So you draw the line at "desires to vote" rather than "is capable of answering a few trivia questions". But say passing the test was a requirement to vote, wouldn't the people who want to vote naturally proceed with studying for and taking the test, while those who don't want to won't be bothered since overcoming the obstacle is even greater than overcoming the resistance of mailing in a form or going to an actual booth? (Or perhaps using an app?) Thus the test would serve as a proxy for desire, with even more potential upsides according to GP. What would the distribution look like given no filter, filtering by test passers, and filtering by people who want to vote?

Lawtonfogle 11y ago
>But say passing the test was a requirement to vote, wouldn't the people who want to vote naturally proceed with studying for and taking the test, while those who don't want to won't be bothered since overcoming the obstacle is even greater than overcoming the resistance of mailing in a form or going to an actual booth? The problem is that any such test with answers could be inherently biased against some groups. 'Do I feel like going to vote today' is not biased in such a way as the person taking the test is the creator of the test itself. Imagine if there was a test to vote, but every person created their own test, answered their own test, and then scored their own test (and the test didn't have to make sense to anyone, including the person who created/took/graded it).