Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

You have ten minutes to complete. Any errors are an automatic fail

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In the rural counties where most folk lived, you had to go down to the courthouse to register. The Registrars Office was only open every other Monday for a couple of hours, usually in the morning or afternoon. You had to take off work — with or without your employer's permission — to register. And if a white employer gave such permission, or failed to fire a Black who tried to vote, he could be driven out of business by economic retaliation from the Citizens Council.

On the occasional registration day, the county Sheriff and his deputies made it their business to hang around the courthouse to discourage "undesirables" from trying to register. This meant that Black women and men had to run a gauntlet of intimidation, insults, threats, and sometimes arrest on phony charges, just to get to the Registration Office. Once in the Registrars Office they faced hatred, harassment, and humiliation from clerks and officials.

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From here

I remember my dads wife telling me this still went on when we first met about 12 years ago. I was surprised tbh.

I saw this yesterday as a test from another state, Louisiana or so.

Either way it's a literacy test made by illiterate people. If it takes a German to tell you that your English literacy test has a double "the" in question 25 and is missing a "have" in question 30 (Just the ones I saw glancing over it, there might be more) then you are hardly literate yourself.

And if you then take this test made by illiterate people to test the literacy of others, you are a failure.
There's not much that is more ironic than a literacy test that shows the one who made it couldn't even check his or her own grammar and spelling.

Oh and question 28...it's not a curved line if it has a straight spot. Most likely they even mean level or horizontal in which case they who made this fail at more than just grammar and spelling unless there is some rule in English (that I'm not aware of) that says "straight" can double for "horizontal".

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Originally Posted by Husar

Either way it's a literacy test made by illiterate people. If it takes a German to tell you that your English literacy test has a double "the" in question 25 and is missing a "have" in question 30 (Just the ones I saw glancing over it, there might be more) then you are hardly literate yourself.

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"Paris in the the spring" is actually a popular optical illusion - it's meant to trip you up if you're not careful as it's easy to miss the second "the". I think most people who didn't learn english as their first language will naturally be a little more careful when using it, hence you noticed the trick very easily.

But... yeah... otherwise it's a poorly-worded and ambiguous test at best. Really sad that this sort of thing was used to present a false equality. Equality was never really about equal treatment, rather more about equal opportunity. It's nice to know that this is in the past though - makes me wonder where the more developed societies will be in the future. I think we're kind of socially stagnated until humans bind a little more into a homogeneous society. I swear we need to become robots - it's the only way forward, not backward. Upwards, not forward.

I'm too tired and sober for this discussion. Please excuse me.

Edit: And always twirling!

The test is trapped so that they could fail you as they pleased.

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"straight" can double for "horizontal".

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Depends on which part of the UK, oop north, straight can mean square, as in building. If that helps.

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Originally Posted by Raz

"Paris in the the spring" is actually a popular optical illusion - it's meant to trip you up if you're not careful as it's easy to miss the second "the". I think most people who didn't learn english as their first language will naturally be a little more careful when using it, hence you noticed the trick very easily.

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No, I'm just thorough. :sweatdrop:

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Originally Posted by InsaneApache

Depends on which part of the UK, oop north, straight can mean square, as in building. If that helps.

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Well, I forgot whether Alabama is in the north or the south of the UK...
And what would a curved line with a square part in one point look like?

As Pape mentions the instructions are not clear enough so they can make of it whatever they want.
To stay in character though I'd say they're too dumb to express what they want. ~;)

It took me a minute to get what even the first question meant. Whoever came up with that test should be banned from voting. And reproducing.

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Originally Posted by Husar

No, I'm just thorough. :sweatdrop:



Well, I forgot whether Alabama is in the north or the south of the UK...
And what would a curved line with a square part in one point look like?

As Pape mentions the instructions are not clear enough so they can make of it whatever they want.
To stay in character though I'd say they're too dumb to express what they want. ~;)

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Well to be be fair to me, of which I invariably am, you did inquire into how one English word could roughly equate with another one. As the polite fellow that I am, I just made an example of how a colloquialism may come into play.

As they say; never let a good deed go unpunished. :bow:

Aweful. They all make sense, but are unrelated to the right to vote. Laws against these things for that purpose are a good thing.

10 minutes for 30 questions? Could one have gotten extra time upon demonstrating a disability? :bucktooth:

So I would not be able to vote, which is pretty much the same as what I do now.

Suffrage was in the bible. It is only fair that we are allowed the opportunity to decide not to vote, which is why Jesus suffrage for our sins

Passed the test in two minutes. I really don't see what's so wrong with making sure that people are able to understand what their getting into before letting them vote.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I kid. I imagine the people who wrote that test where laughing hard, it's a really sick joke

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did u also read the article? if not, please do so, its not just about the test, but more so the context i think.

if you have read the article, and still dont think something is wrong, i suppose there isnt much left to talk about, and I wish you a good day.

I was joking, check the spoiler in my post ~;)

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Originally Posted by Tuuvi

I was joking, check the spoiler in my post ~;)

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ah i missed the spoiler :P or u edit that in later?

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Originally Posted by The Stranger

ah i missed the spoiler :P or u edit that in later?

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He did edit in later. Not sure if it was the spoiler. But from a time frame world view the edit was 7 minutes after his post and 4hrs before yours.

FYI He got me too.

This was meant to fail black people.

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Originally Posted by Strike For The South

This was meant to fail black people.

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No, it was meant to empower them through tough love.

It's pretty amazing that any tried at all. Seeing as the offices would be patrolled by clansmen and you had to give your address and that of your extended family. Those KKK wouldn't just scare people, they would murder with impunity.

I get that that test is somewhat of a joke (although it of course wasn't meant as one).

However, I cant help but feel that some sort of test to see if the voters can understand information, and has informed themselves, would be a good idea.