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If You Needed to Pass an Exam to Vote
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2025
105 points (80.0% liked)
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What that actually looked like:
A perfectly designed test - ambiguous enough that anyone subjected to it can be failed.
I still don't know what #11 is "supposed" to be.
I think it's supposed to say "Cross out the digit necessary", so one digit, in which case cross out the 1 because there's enough 0's that crossing out one 0 isn't enough.
It's 10 that has me confused. Is it asking for the last letter of the first word that starts with 'L' in that sentence? It doesn't actually specify.
I would assume each question is independent of the others, so probably a T for 'last'
That would be my guess too, but tbh that's the only question I don't feel confident about
Yeah, but the actual answer is how white are you?
Yeah, in the most pedantic sense, the correct answer is "a", for "Louisiana"
"Oh, you're black? Sorry, it was first L word in this undisclosed dictionary that we use for these tests"
That's a perfect example of its ambiguousness; I read that as "the number below [this question]" and assumed I had to cross out enough zeros to make it 1,000,000.
Compared to rest of questions, the one doesn't specify that the answer is contained in the sentence, By that logic, I'd say the first word is Louisiana.
And question 12, looks like the intent was below circle 3, but they put below circle 2. So is it a typo, or another intentionally ambiguous question where you can fail whoever you want?
Can anyone explain #1 to me? What are you supposed to circle? It says "the number or the letter". There's 1 number and the entire sentence is literally letters...
It's like when the waiter asks "Soup or salad?" and you say "Yes".
Circle? It clearly says draw a line around whatever you decided wrongly to indicate. Lines don't curve and aren't boxes, so good luck.
This was my first hold up. I think the correct answer is to print the test onto a substrate that can be molded into a sphere. Then you can draw a geodesic around the number.
I can help! So the first step is to be white, and then the second step is to do whatever you think seems right
And 13 is unclear if it's strictly 'more than' or 'more than or equal'
That's on purpose - white skin? it can be either one; otherwise both are wrong.
You actually weren't subjected to literacy tests "if your grandfather was eligible to vote", ie your grandfather was a white citizen.
What's interesting about the literacy tests is how much they have in common with IQ tests!
For example, a friend of mine remembers his childhood testing. For part of it a child is handed a set of cards and told to put them in order.
They have pictures of a set of blocks being assembled into a structure and the sun moves in an arc in the background.
Following the order implied by the sun is, apparently, wrong.
You got enough answers but here's how you deny someone the right to vote: the question really means you need to make the number 1000000 exact as that is the number "below" the question. Not fewer, physically below.
Oh good, now we have three completely different answers
Four. You need to make the number below (less than) one million, so cross out zeros until it's 100,000.
β0000000β isn't a properly formatted number.
It's a fun game finding the ways you can tell someone whatever they said is wrong.
It's not supposed to be anything. There is no correct answer. The ambiguity is the point.
Also worth pointing out, WHY the test is so bad... 1. obviously not even well educated people today can agree on the meaning of a good portion of the questions.
but the biggest thing is, not everyone had to take them... IE the key point intention was "if a parent or grandparent has ever voted, you can skip this test". which is such a blatant giving away that they don't care of an individuals knowledge, they aren't actually worried if they can read, they were just keeping first generation voters from voting... at a time when in particular a specific subset of american's were in position to be first generation voters.
(black people, particularly)
There are two more pages to this and it gets worse
https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/aale/pdfs/Voter%20Test%20LA.pdf
This has the full thing and some explanation
Prove you're literate by solving lateral thinking word puzzles.
This is like the kryptonite of autistic people... and black voters whenever they had this...
I did my best. Do I get to vote?
Nope. The answer to number ten is 'a'.
Assuming you went with "last", but that starts with 'l', not 'L'. Each other question also specifies "one this line" where relevant, but not this one. The first word starting with 'L' is "Louisiana".
The trick of the test is that it's subjective to the person grading it. I could have also told you that the line drawing one (12) was wrong by just saying it's not the correct way to do it. Or that 11 was wrong because you didn't make the number below one million, it's equal to one million. Or if you crossed off one more zero I'd say you could have gotten fewer by crossing off the 1 at the start. Or that a long string of zeros isn't a properly formatted number.
Aww, my suffrage. :(
Here's a more straightforward test. Please share the RGB value from the site below that most closely matches your skin tone and I'll let you know if you pass or fail.
https://rgbcolorpicker.com/
Number 11 says, "cross out the number," as in, only one number. Pretty sure you have to cross out "1" so that it's just a bunch of zeros.
You do not get to vote. You drew a curve for question 12 when the instructions specified a line.