Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder whether “one man, one vote” makes sense.
Polls routinely reveal that a majority of Americans have marginal knowledge of government, politics, and political issues.
All citizens should be allowed to vote.
But, should these uninformed citizens vote?
YouGov.com conducted a survey that queried people’s opinions on that specific issue.
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Overall, it was a split vote … with a slight plurality (46%) saying that all citizens should vote and 42% saying that only the well-informed should vote.
The results are more interesting if you drill down to the poll’s “internals”:
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Party Affiliation
A majority of Democrats (52%) say that citizens should vote whether well-informed or not.
Only 31% of Dems say that a person should only vote if they are well-informed.
An ironic twist: Dems think that they’re smart (well-informed) and Trump voters are dumb as rocks. Hmmm.
On the flipside, a majority of Independents (51%) say that only well-informed citizens should vote.
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Gender
A majority of men (50%) say that only well-informed citizens should vote.
A majority of women (51%) say that all citizens should vote.
Only 34% of women agree with men that only well-informed citizens should vote.
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Race
A clear majority of Blacks (60%) say that all citizens should vote.
Only 22% of Blacks say that only well-informed citizens should vote.
Whites and Hispanics are pretty evenly split on the issue.
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One of the more interesting findings:
Younger Americans (aged 19-29) are most inclined (60%) to say that only well-informed citizens should vote.
Of course, the younger folks probably think they’re the only ones who are well-informed.
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These are the numbers.
But, they raise a couple of obvious questions:
1) What does it mean to be “well-informed”?
2) So, what to do about it, if anything?
Tomorrow, we’ll address the first question: what is “well-informed”?
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