Are You Smart Enough to Vote?

he 1931 Vermont Commission on Country Life was not sure all Vermonters were smart enough to vote. So great was their concern, they proposed a resolution that would have required intelligence tests for all eligible voters.

Hard to believe? In, "Rural Vermont: A Program for the Future by Two Hundred Vermonters," the Commission reported that:

"Studies that have already been made indicate that ignorance is one of the main underlying causes is one of the main underlying causes of failure to vote. There are two important ways of attacking this problem effectively: (1) restrict the suffrage to the more intelligent and (2) simplify the problem of the voter by reducing the number of elective officers which he has to fill. The use of either or both of these methods would be decidedly helpful. It is to be hoped that both of them will soon be accepted as fundamental to our scheme of government."

The Rural Vermont Commission's recommendation was take up by a gubernatorial commission appointed to recommend amendments to the Vermont Constitution. In 1931, it recommended intelligence tests as part of voters qualification. To support their position, they provided research that showed "persons who have more than an eighth-grade education are 15 percent more likely to vote...than persons who have a smaller amount of formal education." Until intelligence tests where more widely accepted, the commission recommended level of education be the measure of intelligence for qualifying voters.

This commission's recommendation contrasted with the report of a similar commission appointed in 1919, which had recommended mandatory voting. Like the 1919 proposal, the Legislature did not take action on the amendment to require intelligence tests for voters.

The Bigger Picture

This is not the only example of the relationship between education and voting. There have been countless times in history when education was used to either encourage or discourage voting.

Thomas Jefferson helped establish our public education system believing that an informed citizenry was necessary for democracy to thrive. President Jefferson said that no public an remain strong without, "general education to enable will secure or endanger his freedom."

Later, literacy tests were used to prevent certain groups from voting. In the south these tests were used to prevent African Americans from voting. In other parts of the nation, similar tests were used to prevent new immigrant groups from influencing local elections.

Most recently, education was a key point in the debate on the 26th Amendment that lowered the voting age to 18 years old. Those in support of the amendment cited higher educational attainment as a reason to lower the voting age.

What do you think?

With the exception of literacy tests, it is clear that education was viewed as a tool to improve democracy. What is not clear is if education has been an effective tool. Do you think education has anything to do with whether or not people vote? Do you think more 18-year-olds would vote if they had civics course their senior year? What would you recommend be done to encourage more people to vote?

The Vermont Constitution says: Every person of he full age of eighteen years who is a citizen of the United States, having resided in this State for the period established by the General Assembly and who is of a quiet and peaceable behavior, and will take the following oath or affirmation, shall be entitled to all the privileges of a voter of this state.

According to the Vermont Secretary of State's Office: The oath simply says that you will vote your conscience and not let anyone tell you how to vote. The person administering the oath will ask you to raise your right hand, then recite or read the oath and ask you to say, "I do." If you do not take oaths, you may take it as an affirmation.

The oath is unique to Vermont. it was originally required in the 1777 Vermont Constitution. It was known as the "Freeman Oath" until the gender Inclusive Language Revision Amendment of 1994, when it became the "Voter's Oath."

Did You Know?

If a candidate for governor, lieutenant governor or treasurer does not receive more than 50 percent of the vote, the state Legislature decides the winner?

Specifically, the Vermont Constitution requires candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and treasurer to receive a majority of the votes in order to be elected; and in the same event no candidate receives a majority, the Senate and House of Representatives elect the person to hold that office by joint ballot.

With a hotly contested race for governor that includes eight candidates on the ballot, there is a real possibility that no candidate will receive a majority vote. Given this possibility, the State Archives have provided some interesting facts on the history of races being decided by the Legislature:

Twenty-one times no one received a majority for governor, throwing the election into the General Assembly.

The first time an election failed to produce a majority winner in the gubernatorial race was in 1789. The joint assembly chose the second-place finisher. Thus the incumbent, Thomas Chittenden, was unseated by Moses Robinson, though he won the popular vote by 44.1% to 26%.

In 1835, the joint assembly, split among partisan factions (Anti-Masons, Democrats, and an emerging Whig Party), declared itself unable to elect a governor after 63 ineffectual ballots. The lieutenant governor served as acting governor for the term.

In 1837, the General Assembly elected the third-place finisher in the treasurer's race, even though he captured only 3.4% of the popular vote. He refused to serve.

1853, factions within the Legislature combined to elect the Democratic candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and treasurer even though the incumbent Whig candidates had received the most votes in the election. The following year the Republican Party was formed and the Democrats would not return to the Governor's Office until 1963.

Governor Erastus Fairbanks won the popular vote in 1853, but lost the election in the Legislature.

The last time the non-plurality winner was selected was in the 1976 lieutenant governor's race, when T. Garry Buckley (R) was chosen over John Alden (D). Alden received the highest vote total as a result of receiving votes as a Democrat and as an "Independent Vermonter;" without the Independent Vermonter votes Alden would have finished behind Buckley.

The information is courtesy of the State Archives Division, Secretary of State's Office. For more information, visit www.sec.state.vt.us under archives, issues of governance.

Further Discussion

Would you still agree with your position on the question above if the persons receiving the second and third most votes agree on key issues and their vote total is greater than the number of votes received by the first-place finisher who disagreed with them on those issues?