As much as I would LOVE some sort of test, it won't work. One word: race.
If I remember correctly, such an idea was proposed back in the "good" ole' South during the Jim Crow era to discourage African Americans from voting.
So if it was brought back again liberals would see it the same they do voter ID--it would be racist because no matter what the test was they'd make up some lie about how "minorities" (and if they're particularly daring, they'll say LGBT people and women even though I don't know how they'd be able to fudge numbers saying that these groups have "lower IQ on average) would be at a "disproportionate disadvantage when taking the test".
If it was a basic math problem (unfortunately I have forgotten how to do Quadratic equations, lol
) then at best they'd have people "assisting the minorities" (aka straight up giving them the answer so that they could go and vote).
If it was "match the candidate with his/her positions" then it would be easier for the "minorities with below average IQs" (ironically, to liberals it isn't racist to say that certain people groups are stupid if there's a way to gain from it politically
) to complete it. But how many questions would it be? Maybe one randomly generated question from a selection of issues? That would be great, but I think that any attempts to make sure that brainwashed people (of either party, I can think of people who blindly vote Republican because "their values align with the Bible's") from voting would be seen as bad, possibly by Republicans and VERY MUCH SO by the Democrats. If you took away every non-informed voter, who would win? I think the Republicans, but not necessarily by a large margin. (Lol, this is reminding me of my days as a straw conservative!
)
And Keith, I think the best way to decide that would be to just carefully choose neutral words. Pro-life and pro-choice, for example. Maybe even a reminder definition for the truly ignorant
But I would love for this to be implemented. Candidates wouldn't get any "free boosts" from anybody, and given Obama having just permitted lots of Central Americans into the US this would be a low blow for the Democrats if this got passed, and even if a Spanish version of this test was available I think they'd still get upset. You'd have to really analyze the candidates and be forced to make an actual decision!
The only problem is that it wouldn't stop the "I'm just voting for him because I'd rather have him than the other guy" voting. So for that we'd just need more candidates, maybe 2 or 3 per party.