Ask HN: Competitive wages in elected posts, Ranked list voting, Voting tests?
Paying candidates a competitive wage with the private sector, and the chance for financial growth in the position should attract better candidates.
You wouldn't let an unqualified surgeon operate on your body, so why are unqualified voters allowed to work on your democracy? Voting tests are dangerous, because they can be written to disenfranchise people. We've figured out fair tests for all other kinds of professional licensing, so there should be no reason we can't figure out a fair test for voting. I made a short video about this topic.
Avoiding the pitfalls such as an unfair test, or other; This should create a pool of better candidates, selected through a better voting system by better voters.
The question is, how do you repatriate a system that has been captured.