Weighted voting in America

There is one big flaw in our current voting system… every vote is equal :)

Okay, I wasn’t just trying to get a rise from you; I really meant that as a problem. And no need to try and quote the constitution… I’m fully aware of what the 15th, 19th and 26th amendments say. But you take this good ideological principle and apply it to today’s population and what you get is a majority of the people who don’t understand or don’t care to learn the democratic process or the issues that face them. They have neither the time nor the inclination to better themselves by participating in the election process. The most important role a citizen can play for the country, apart from serving in the military, is voting. And not just blindly voting, but making an educated vote.

The concept of a weighted vote is simple; we “weigh” the knowledge of the voter based on certain basic criteria (which we’ll talk about later) and based on their response, their vote can be counted between a range of 0 to 1. So let’s say we make this simple and ask each voter 5 questions and each question carries a weight of 20%. Then the voter with 0 correct answers will contribute to 0 vote, the one with 5 correct answers will contribute to 1 vote and the person with 2 correct answers will contribute to 0.4 votes. The questions will not be based on the voter’s intelligence or party affiliation, but basic civic questions: Who is the governor of your state? How many seats does your state have in the House of Representatives? How many senators are there in Congress? Where does the candidate you’ve chosen stand on Roe vs. Wade? As you can see, these are the type of questions they expect immigrants wanting a US citizenship to know the answers to, so why shouldn’t we expect the voting public to know the same.

So why do all of this? Well, it bugs me that the vote of an informed, analytical voter carries the same weight as someone who read that Justin Beaver (yeah, I know that’s not how you spell it, but I like it this way :)) likes the outfit some candidate was wearing! A vote is the closest thing to politics that most of us get to and that needs to be taken more seriously. People spend countless hours watching American Idol and Jersey Shore, but don’t know the different between a caucus and a primary or a delegate and a lobbyist! Their vote should not count the same as someone who exercised their right to vote in the way it was meant to be done; by understanding the issues, evaluating them and coming up with an informed decision on their own.

This will probably never happen since the PC police will never let it happen. But I wish people thought of their vote as such an important RIGHT that they have and took it more seriously and conversations like this is the only way that can happen.

Next time, we’ll talk about how I think people who are physically able, but choose not to vote should be penalized! :)