Should this simple 10-question test be used to determine whether people have enough basic knowledge to be eligible to vote?

All of the question are true/false:

1. T F The Constitution of the United States of America was ratified on July 4, 1776.

2. T F Neither Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, nor George Washington considered themselves Christian.

3. T F The Emancipation Proclamation made illegal the institution of slavery in the United States.

4. T F The theory of biological evolution makes no claim about the origin of life on Earth.

5. T F The President is not able to submit bills directly to Congress.

6. T F The government's deficit is the amount of money currently owed by the government.

7. T F The United States is a democratic republic, not a democracy.

8. T F Ben Franklin invented electricity.

9. T F The Constitution does not contain the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

10. T F The members of some religions should be prohibited from voting.

Answers:

1. False. This is the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution was ratified June 21, 1788, a full 12 years afterward.

2. True. Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington considered themselves Deists. Deists reject the idea that Jesus was anything but human.

3. False. The Emancipation Proclamation applied to the Confederate States of America, a foreign nation at the time, and had no bearing on slaves in the United States of America. The Fourteenth Amendment ended slavery in the US.

4. True. The theory of biological evolution only describes how species change over time, not how life first came about.

5. True. The President is prohibited from directly submitting bills to Congress.

6. False. The deficit is the difference between the government's revenue and expenditures. The debt is the amount of money currently owed.

7. True. The United States is a democratic republic that elects representatives. In a true democracy, citizens vote on laws themselves.

8. False. Not only was electricity in existence long before Ben Franklin was born, but Ben Franklin was not the first human to discover electrical energy.

9. True. This phrase is found in the Declaration of Independence but not in the Constitution.

10. False. Anyone who chooses "true" would be in violation of a number of civil rights protections and their bigotry is grounds for ignoring their vote.

EDIT: Question 4 was originally "the theory of evolution explains the origin of life on Earth"; answer: false. It occurred to me that some people could get question 4 correct, but for the wrong reason.