12 Mar 08 Are you an informed voter?
I came across an interesting website today http://www.dontvote.org.
Its basically a little test to see how informed you are as a voter by showing you pictures of people and having you identify them. I scored a B at 83.43% There were a few I didn’t know. I had forgot there was a new guy in charge of the UN, missed a couple House of Representatives leaders and the guy currently running Israel.
It made me think about the thing Leno does from time to time, going out on the street with a picture of someone high up in government and asking people who that person was. I guess that makes good entertainment, the audience laugh but really it is sad. This also gets me thinking of the get out the vote, rock the vote or any other pro-voting movement. I wonder how many of the people these organizations reach are informed on the issues. How many are voting for the sex or race of the candidate, how many are voting just for ‘change’ without change really ever being explained.
There was a time in the US where you had to a white landowner to vote. I wonder though, back then without TV and the rest of the current media how informed were these white guys on the issues and the candidates. Did people pay attention and how? Newspapers I guess. There really wasn’t a way to watch cspan. Nowadays just about anyone can vote unless you are in prison or felon who served your time, depending on the state. I’m not sure I agree with that, especially with the continuously expanding ‘non very serious’ crimes that could get you a felony, but thats a whole another post.
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