Ben Shapiro: The right to vote should require “some sort of minimum level of knowledge”
Shapiro: “If you're not willing to do that, then why should I take your vote as seriously as somebody who is willing to take voting seriously?”
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From the February 3, 2020 edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show:
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): The basic idea that you should be able to have basic lit -- you know, basic, not, as you say, fake poll test, literacy test designed to exclude black people or something -- the idea that you would have to have, like, a basic knowledge of America's Constitution, for example, to vote, I don't see that as a horrible idea. I really don't.
I mean, it seems to me that having people -- you know, the system that we have right now, which is you pick up a bunch of people at a bus stop and you bring them to a voting place, which is really what's happening in a lot of local elections, particularly -- that that is somehow beneficial to democracy I find bizarre.
It's one of the reasons why I think that the notion that you should be able to vote online, that making voting easier is deeply important, I don't agree with that.
I mean, I think that you should actually have to jump through the hoop of having to take the time and effort to vote, because if you're not willing to do that, then why should I take your vote as seriously as somebody who is willing to take voting seriously?
Doesn't mean you should pay money for it, god forbid, It doesn't mean that we should try to ban anybody from the polling places, God forbid, but the idea of some sort of minimum level of knowledge about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States -- I don't think it's a horrible idea.