America Needs New Voting Requirements
With the upcoming inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2025, America will be in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump. Due to the varying opinions about the election results in America, many people say he should not have won that election. To keep that from occurring again in future elections, more requirements should be added as a law to vote for the president of the United States, specifically to ensure education for U.S. citizens.
One possible requirement is a standardized test that would be required to be taken before people can vote, similar to the U.S. citizenship test. This test would involve questions about each candidate’s policies and their effects, their views on the economy, education, climate change, healthcare, and foreign policy, questions about their past experiences and roles in the government, and the voting process as a whole. A standardized test can ensure that voters know what each candidate will do if they become president, how it’ll affect them as citizens, and that the public fully understands the candidates by learning from an accurate source, rather than unreliable sources in the media. However, requiring a test for citizens to take to vote goes against their rights to vote as citizens from the Constitution. Not everyone has access to the means to learn about each of the candidates, and not everyone cares enough to learn the facts as they solely rely on the media as their source of information. That is the main problem in this country; they don’t know the facts because they listen to whatever they hear without fact-checking it. Even though a standardized test is controversial, ways for the public to learn about the candidates should be incorporated into a law.
Another possible voting requirement is incorporating the information into the high school curriculum. The course would study the policies of the presidents/candidates, their views on major subjects, and how voting/elections in general work. Making a class for these topics specifically will ensure that from a young age, the public will learn to get their information from an accurate source, they will know each candidate’s/the president’s views and will understand their policies and how they can affect them as a student and citizen. This will also allow everyone to have access to this information and won’t discriminate against people who don’t have access to reliable sources or access to higher education because they will be able to learn it in high school. If every citizen knew accurate information, they would be able to cast their vote accurately.
Other people have argued there should be an age cap for voters. According to the Pew Research Center, 82% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats support putting a maximum age limit in place for elected officials in Washington, D.C. However, some have expressed concerns about creating an age cap because it conflicts with the principles of the Constitution involving equality and nondiscrimination. Others argue that there should still be an age cap because older generations shouldn’t be voting for the future of the younger generations. An age cap would allow future generations to make their future without the opinions of older generations.
In the recent election, there was also a lot of discussion about lowering the age requirement to vote. While still lower than the majority, about 25% of Americans think that seventeen-year-olds should be allowed to vote, and 16% think that sixteen-year-olds should be allowed to vote. If there was a standardized test that everyone would be required to take to vote, those numbers would most likely increase. If teenagers know enough to pass the test, they should be allowed to have a say in their future, not just solely rely on the people older than them. Lowering the age cap will also entice more political interest because it applies to them. Overall, allowing teenagers to vote can only lead to a positive outcome, as long as a standardized test comes along with it.
In the end, no matter what a majority of the American people think, there should be an adjustment to the requirements to vote because of a lack of education about each of the candidates in this recent election. The most important thing when voting is knowing the facts and the issues, and not being blinded by the media and what they tell their audience. The ideas listed above would help a more accurate opinion be formed by the public before going to the polls.
Sources
댓글