It is against the laws of the United States to require anyone to take a test as a condition for voting--in fact, it's unconstitutional. It may sound like a good idea to assure that all of our fellow voters understand our system of government before voting in an election, but it didn't work out that way in practice. In practice ( before a constitutional amendment that made it illegal ), voting tests were administered very unfairly, according to race, or according to political affiliation.. One potential voter might have been asked "who is the president of the United States? ", and another might have been asked to recite the constitution. Anyone who could control the voter "qualification" process was assured a victory in the election.
Any foreigner who becomes a citizen of the United States does have to pass a test--not to vote, but to become a citizen.
Everyone born in the United States was once assumed to be a product of state-run or state-approved schools, where they would have been taught about our system of government. With so many people now being "home schooled", this may no longer be the case. But a voting test is not the answer--the potential for abuse is too great. If enough people do decide that a citizenship test for voting is a good idea, and that it could be fairly administered, we would need to amend the constitution to put it into practice.
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