My Opinion on your 1 through 4:

>1 - be able to pass a very simple civics test - ...
>3 - have paid taxes in last 4 years (exclude retirees who have paid throughout lifetime) - this should take care of most of #2

The problem with all of these things is the only ones who will wanna even vote after you consider all the forms and checks that will need to be done to even see if they can vote, will be the overly political type, which will be very unrepresenting of the public.

>4 - be at least 26 years old - sorry the age of social maturity and responsibility has risen the last 40 years

Why should 18-25 year old adults and college students be nullified because there are other citizens that age that aren't as politically aware as you are? Are there 30 year olds that don't know the first hting about politics? Yeah. Are there 20 year olds that know alot more about it than you? Yeah. Does knowledge of politics mean they are more qualified to vote? No.

Take Minnesota for example, why was Jesse elected? Mainly cause the kids liked him, we had more 18 - 22 year olds vote than ever and not by a little (if I can remember this all correctly). Does that mean that all those kids are wrong becuase of their age? Is Jesse a bad Governor? I say "no" to both.