Should Voters Be Required to Understand English? – IOTW Report

Should Voters Be Required to Understand English?

Friday, 16 March 2018, 20:45 MJA Uncategorized 21

American Thinker:

After the Civil War, four million people of African-American descent became free residents of the U.S. Since they were born in the U.S., they were citizens and were allowed to vote in local, state, and federal elections.

But those who had owned slaves did not want former slaves to rise up against them and become members of Congress and officials in statehouses. And since slaves had been systematically denied the opportunity to read and write, they were given improper, unconstitutional tests at the polling place. For example, they may have been required to recite, word for word, the Gettysburg Address. And oftentimes white voters did not have to pass the tests that were given to blacks.

This practice persisted, unchallenged, for one hundred years, until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 abolished what the Act called “tests and devices” for denying people the right to vote, since these tests and devices were almost always based on racial distinctions. Southern states simply did not want blacks to vote.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act authorized Congress to establish rules for enforcing the Act. Specifically, a set of rules and guidelines were established that allowed the federal government to step in and find those states and counties in the U.S. that had established “tests and devices” such as literacy tests and other gimmicks. At the time, all of these procedural roadblocks were based on race.  more here

21 Comments on Should Voters Be Required to Understand English?

  1. I still wish to repeal 26th amendment. 18-20 year olds are mostly too inexperienced and uninformed to vote.
    English? All ballots in this English speaking country should be in English only. Period.

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  2. English only must be achieved in the Poll’s, if you don’t speak the Language you will vote by heresay of an English speaker who will be a Democrat, they have it staked out in So Cal and contact all possible Mexicans to tell them who to vote for to get more Free Shit & the Lib’s get their Vote the Mexican gets his Freebie’s and their all happy campers !

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  3. I don’t care what language a voter speaks or understands. But all voters should be required to register, showing proof of residence, age, and citizenship of the United States and the state in which they cast their vote.

    Voter registration cards should have a photo and be free for every eligible voter. No ID card, no vote, period.

    But if a person’s state drivers’ licence verified the citizenship of the driver at time of issue and has a picture, it could be used for verification.

    I’m not adverse to thumbprint verification on the ID plus voting ballot, at time the vote is cast.

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  6. “For example, they may have been required to recite, word for word, the Gettysburg Address.”

    How about we REQUIRE Nancy Pelosi do this prior to taking office?

    For fucks sake, we have elected representatives that think GUAM CAN CAPSIZE!

    AAARrrrggghhhh!!!! 🙁

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  7. Back to what the founding fathers had:
    White, land owning, men only ; )

    I would add:
    -Over 30 years old
    -Must have at least one child (Proof you have a stake in the future)
    -Must own a gun (people that don’t own guns are dependent on others for safety, America needs fewer dependants)
    -Must have been born in the U.S.A.

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  9. Of course! a common language is the glue that binds. Look at the disaster Canada has turned into the last 100 years! We have been becoming Canada the last 60 years (excluding ’81 to ’88); it will only get worse!

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  11. it’s way past time to make English the official language of the United States

    @PHenry ~ imo, if 18-20 year-olds are too inexperienced to by a gun … then they are too inexperienced to vote, to drive a motor vehicle (a greater cause of death than rifles)

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  12. English! English, English. Support USA English: declare English our national language. (I am sick of Press 3 for Arabic….)

    And, yep, I’d kinda like a competency/political literacy test, as well. …but I don’t know how to do it. Busing people to the polls who, for $10 and a tuna sandwich lunch, are told to put an X in the specified box is not what America is about.

    Trump is on the voter integrity problem, but it’s so deeply ingrained in corrupt parts of America, it will be hard to uproot. It is an important goal, however. ….Lady in Red

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  16. See T. Roosevelt’s famous quote regarding assimilation.

    In America, one should be required to understand a ballot, or for that matter a driver’s test in English. To weed out the unqualified these should be printed ONLY in English.

    Lots of people, even smart people, think “democracy” means “one person, one vote.” A quick survey of history will prove this untrue. It was not the case in Periclean Athens, nor in any of the “republics” which followed.
    The franchise was extended only those CITIZENS who met certain requirements of age, responsibility and probity.
    This was necessary to insure against the mob voting for Free Shit.

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  17. A Puerto Rican is a U.S. citizen. They can vote here without ever having a need to speak English. A Spanish exemption would pretty much ruin any plan to end the craziness.

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  20. That would eliminate 47% of the voters, right off the bat.

    Anything more Englishly involved than: “Yo, muthufuckuh, Trump bad!” would cause heads to spin and Demonrats to lose.

    So, fuggitaboutit.

    izlamo delenda est …

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