This is the Republic of Gondour’s way of balancing the disparity between the wealthy, and the not wealthy.
On Gondour, each person begins with one vote each, but can earn through unusual means, the right to vote multiple times in a single election.
Thus, a single person can earn the right to have many votes, while others, less ambitious, are left with only one vote for life….
But, on the Planet Earth, that small but smart blue marble whirling through the cosmos, the USA federation decreed
— only one vote shall be given to each person who has lived ‘long enough’ …about 18 summers at least, and who is mostly compos mentis, and not yet dead and buried underground or rendered into ashes.
However,
this voting apportionment of one vote to a human being, appears to predictably cause huge distrust and suspicion each time Planet Earth has gone round the Sun 2 to 4 times.
Some of the most rabid of inquiries, sleuthings and condemnations revolve around the idea that some human beings appear to insist dead people ought vote, or are nefariously voting, not to mention verified fact that even cremains sometimes gain voting status nationwide.
Apparently in some quarters, even funny drawings of mice are given voting privileges under certain circumstances
To Poli-Sci (Fi) Girl, these matters are puzzling, for in other parts of the galaxy, voting for leaders is seen differently.
For instance… on Gondour, which is led by a Grand Caliph (high-dungeon titles being part of a leader’s invisible but palpable salary) who is elected in 20 year terms:
–Democracy is not seen as a fait accompli, but rather as a messy experiment of trial and error… mostly error, many trials, and sometimes a half-way decent outcome.
Thus, although the Republic of Gondour tried, as did the nation United States on Earth, to grant universal suffrage with one vote to a person…
on Gondour, so many ill-fits and misfits and richer-than-Croesus-fits, were elected to office by other ill-fits and misfits and wealthy-warped, that something had to be done to gain real leaders who were not ignorant or self-serving of their own tribes only.
So, rather than curtail voting in order to stop the elections of such ill-suited persons– the Gondourians decided to expand voting privileges instead.
Now on Gondour each person “…no matter how poor or ignorant,” possesses one vote,
BUT,
— “if a man possesses a good common-school education and no money, he has two votes;
— a high school education gave him four votes;
— if he had property to the value of three thousand sacos, he wielded one more vote;
— for every 50 thousand sacos a man added to his property, he was entitled to another vote;
— a university education entitled a man to nine votes though he owned no property.”
From where I cruise after midnight (usually somewhere near the Arcturian and Pleiadian Belts), it seems
the logic of Gondour could greatly enhance USA voting on Planet Earth… that is…
for, education is often more easily attained than vast wealth, …
and thereby the masses of Gondour who now vote their many votes each, far outnumber– and thereby check and balance— those who have financial assets only.
On Gondour, most poignantly and importantly, votes based on ‘wealth only’ are called
‘mortal votes’ …and these can be lost if one loses one’s wealth.
Votes based on learning are called ‘immortal votes’ and can only be lost if one goes certifiably insane.
Immortal votes based on learning: Amongst the Gallexians like you and me, surely these count as strong evidence of intelligent life.
—————–
CODA
Gondour is the creation of the inimitable Samuel Langhorn Clemens. “The Republic of Gondour” was penned in 1875, giving some lie to the idea that the tangled issues about who, what and why re voting in the USA is only an issue of our complicated times. The vote, the individual ‘say-so,’ appears to be an evergreen issue, one a little bit like a shut-in, that apparently thrives by being visited, revisited time and again, given assistances and strengthening medicines. Unless you’re a mouse. Or ashes. Or adjudicated into a padded room.