Have Your Say: Should you have to pass a test before being allowed to vote?

Mark Richardson thinks he knows how to fix New Zealanders' shocking lack of civics knowledge - ignore the votes of people who don't know anything about politics.

A survey released Wednesday morning of 1000 Kiwis found fewer than half know how MPs are elected, and almost a third don't even know which parties are currently in Parliament. 

Fewer than a third could name the Minister of Education, and only 5 percent the Minister for the Environment.

"Being a political junkie should not be a prerequisite for voting, but it is hard to vote well if you don't know the basics," said Eric Crampton of the New Zealand Initiative, which commissioned the research.

Richardson, a former international cricketer who now hosts television shows and reads sports news on The AM Show, suggested a fix.

"You go in to vote... but you have to answer five simple political-related questions," he said.

"If you don't get four of the five right, your vote's cast aside. So the only votes that will count in the election are votes from informed political people."

He didn't go into who will choose the questions or how tough they'd be. 

But do you think there's merit to his idea of voting being restricted to those who can prove they're informed?

The results of the poll.
The results of the poll. Photo credit: Newshub.

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