My correspondent dismisses the notion of screening voters by simply saying it’s in the Constitution that stupid people can vote. I don’t dispute that, I simply don’t accept that as the end of the argument. The Constitution certainly recognizes the right of the States and the Federal Government to set standards of one kind or another for voters. Through the amendment process and case law those standards have been made more and more universal. I see nothing wrong in principle with constructing some kind of criteria which filters out some voters. All of the valid objections to this suggestion are practical ones, which is not to say they aren’t persuasive. How do you set up such a system? It would have to be race neutral, for example, not only in intent but in effect or it would never win legal or public approval. But in the abstract I have no problem whatsoever with a standard that made it more difficult for people to vote if the result of that difficulty was a more informed and serious electorate. But I’m a broken record on this.