Obviously voter literacy tests, as they existed in the United States before the Voting Rights Act, were racially motivated attempts to systematically disenfranchise African Americans.

However, my mostly uninformed opinion is that the political discourse in the United States could be greatly improved if voters were required to demonstrate some basic knowledge of the issues. Voters appear to be, on the whole, misinformed, and I suppose I agree with the author of the book in question - if you can't be bothered to be an informed voter, then perhaps you should stay home. In my mind, this includes single-issue voters, but I expect disagreement on this point.

Here is another interesting paper, which /u/nosecohn was kind enough to provide, that takes a deeper look at how informed voters are in the UK - unfortunately, the are unable to draw any conclusions from the data.

I have no earthly idea how one could institute such a system fairly, but I'm very curious to see what this sub has to say.

Specifically:

1) In a vacuum, is such a system feasible, and could it be implemented fairly?

2) If yes, would it be possible to implement in the United States (i.e. is it cost effective? Could it be sold to the public?)

3) Do any other "reputable" democracies (i.e. not North Korea style "elections") do such a thing?

4) Do you think, or is there evidence, that this somehow improves political discourse in the public sphere?

I thought this belonged here instead of /r/ChangeMyView because I don't really have a strong opinion, and I'm mostly just looking for comments and information.