Are Americans smart enough to vote?

I recently offended some people with my modest suggestion that perhaps it wasn't in the best interests of the nation to hand over so much decision-making power to people who aren't informed about the issues and their own system of government. (Responses ranged from "thoughtful disagreement" to what I believe is referred to as a "galloping hissy fit.") Honestly, I was a bit shocked by the reaction - when I penned those remarks it hardly occurred to me that I was saying something controversial. On the other hand, it seemed to me that I was merely stating common sense.

Since that post I've been ruminating about the assumption embedded in the premise - that a goodly number of Americans aren't intelligent enough to be safely entrusted with the vote. In order to bring a little more depth to this debate I thought I'd do some research to discover whether or not the nation's citizens are under-informed, and if so, to what degree. I thought about pulling together a laundry list of reports comparing US students to their counterparts in other nations, but that seemed too easy (and not entirely satisfying).

Instead, I decided to present some interesting poll results. After all, you can't really assess the intellect of the average man in the street by perusing a lot of egg-headed numbers on book-learning. Likewise, it's not fair to evaluate their media consumption habits, because a lot of what looks at a glance to be trivial is in fact in the public interest.

Here's what I discovered... (http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/11/09/are-americans-smart-enough-to-vote">read the rest of Sam Smith's post at S&R)

Who is qualified to determine whether another person is intelligent or well informed enough to vote? The premise of the question the author asks is absurd -- that somehow some super-intelligent person can decide whether another person is intelligent enough to participate in democracy, Makes me wonder about the intelligence and education of the person writing this piece. But then, what qualifies me to judge the intelligence of the author of this opinion piece?

I have no problem with disenfranchising them at all.

Educational television 24/7? Outlawing all religions?

I don't know, but the survival of the nation might depend on finding one.

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion."

Americans were intelligent enough to vote for Gore in 2000, and Kerry in 2004, but they didn't have the smarts to ensure their votes would be counted. No significant legislative changes that would bring legitimacy to the election process have been enacted since then, thus only the feeble minded would expect a different result.

Do you honestly think that if you raised the bar for voters that the outcome would be any different?

Nice attempt to pin it (the problem) on the voters and not those who control and count the vote.

In Major Elections
Before the Civil War and Various Amendments... Blacks could not vote... before 1920 Women could not vote
before 1980 those under 21 and over 18 could not vote...
All of these peoples could die for their country but could not vote in major elections.
If you disenfranchise one group.. who will be next????
It is bad enough when our votes are not counted, or pole or literacy taxed...
Who will decide... obviously you won't put this to a democratic vote!
(am having a galloping hissy fit)