Election day is November 6!
That is right around the corner and, if you're an American, you should eagerly take part in this important civil right. In honor of those who who have fought for and are stilling fighting for equal access to the ballot box, here's a list of titles to remind you why voting is an essential part of democracy.
Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America
Ari Berman
Countless books have been written about the civil rights movement, but far less attention has been paid to what happened after the dramatic passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and the turbulent forces it unleashed. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Ari Berman charts both the transformation of American democracy under the VRA and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit it from the moment the act was signed into law. The VRA is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement, and yet—more than fifty years later—the battles over race, representation, and political power continue, as lawmakers devise new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth, while the Supreme Court has declared a key part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. Through meticulous research, in-depth interviews, and incisive on-the-ground reporting, Give Us the Ballot offers the first comprehensive history of its kind, and provides new insight into one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time.
That is right around the corner and, if you're an American, you should eagerly take part in this important civil right. In honor of those who who have fought for and are stilling fighting for equal access to the ballot box, here's a list of titles to remind you why voting is an essential part of democracy.
Ari Berman
Countless books have been written about the civil rights movement, but far less attention has been paid to what happened after the dramatic passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and the turbulent forces it unleashed. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Ari Berman charts both the transformation of American democracy under the VRA and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit it from the moment the act was signed into law. The VRA is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement, and yet—more than fifty years later—the battles over race, representation, and political power continue, as lawmakers devise new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth, while the Supreme Court has declared a key part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. Through meticulous research, in-depth interviews, and incisive on-the-ground reporting, Give Us the Ballot offers the first comprehensive history of its kind, and provides new insight into one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time.
Benjamin E. Griffith
Updated and expanded to include the most current issues in this area, America Votes! Second Edition provides key information and important perspectives on election law questions which the courts are currently addressing or about to address. The chapters run the gamut from nuts-and-bolts questions about running elections (what safeguards should jurisdictions put in place to make sure that the vote totals generated by vote-counting machines are accurate?) to larger questions about the best methods for democratic governance (should states be allowed to band together and appoint presidential electors in line with the winner of the national popular vote?). Even questions such as how a third party or independent candidate should be able to gain access to the ballot raise important technical and philosophical questions. Many chapters in this book discuss both the requirements for compliance with the Voting Rights Act (including its protections for racial, ethnic and language minorities) as well as the wisdom and logic of those provisions. The Act raises complex issues of both statistical nuance and democratic theory. A timely resource for lawyers, professors, election officials, and state and local government election administrators and poll workers, America Votes! Second Edition provides a snapshot of key election and voting rights issues from the perspective of practitioners highly experienced in a wide variety of areas including redistricting, Voting Rights Act, registration, ballot access, reform measures, and much more.
The Embattled Vote in America: From the Founding to the Present
Allan J. Lichtman
Americans have fought and died for the right to vote. Yet the world’s oldest continuously operating democracy guarantees no one, not even citizens, the opportunity to elect a government. In this rousing work, the best-selling author of The Case for Impeachment calls attention to the founders’ crucial error: leaving the franchise to the discretion of individual states. For most of U.S. history, America’s political leaders have considered suffrage not a natural right but a privilege restricted by wealth, sex, race, residence, literacy, criminal conviction, and citizenship. As a result, the right to vote has both expanded and contracted over time, depending on political circumstances. In the nineteenth century, states eliminated economic qualifications for voting, but the ideal of a white man’s republic persisted through much of the twentieth century. And today, voter identification laws, political gerrymandering, registration requirements, felon disenfranchisement, and voter purges deny many millions of American citizens the opportunity to express their views at the ballot box. We cannot blame the founders alone for America’s embattled vote. Allan Lichtman, who has testified in more than ninety voting rights cases, notes that subsequent generations have failed to establish suffrage as a universal right. The players in the struggle for the vote have changed over time, but the arguments remain familiar. Voting restrictions impose a grave injustice on the many disenfranchised Americans and stunt the growth of our democracy
Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy
Jeff Manza and Chrisopher Uggen
5.4 million Americans—1 in every 40 voting-age adults—are denied the right to participate in democratic elections because of a past or current felony conviction. In several American states, 1 in 4 black men cannot vote due to a felony conviction. In a country that prides itself on universal suffrage, how did the United States come to deny a voice to such a large percentage of its citizenry? What are the consequences of large-scale disenfranchisement—for election outcomes, for the reintegration of former offenders back into their communities, and for public policy more generally? Locked Out exposes one of the most important, yet little known, threats to the health of American democracy. It reveals the centrality of racial factors in the origins of these laws, and their impact on today's political landscape. Marshalling the first real empirical evidence on the issue to make a case for reform, the authors' groundbreaking analysis will inform all future policy and political debates on the laws governing the political rights of criminals.
Voting Rights -- and Wrongs: Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections
Abigail Thernstrom
The 1965 Voting Rights Act is the crown jewel of American civil rights legislation. Its passage marked the death knell of the Jim Crow South. But that was the beginning, not the end, of an important debate on race and representation in American democracy. When is the distribution of political power racially fair? Who counts as a representative of black and Hispanic interests? How we answer such questions shapes our politics and public policy in profound but often unrecognized ways. The act's original aim was simple: Give African Americans the same political opportunity enjoyed by other citizens_the chance to vote, form political coalitions, and elect the candidates of their choice. But in the racist South, it soon became clear that access to the ballot would not, by itself, provide the political opportunity the statute promised. Most southern whites were unwilling to vote for black candidates, and southern states were ready to alter electoral systems to maintain white supremacy. In this provocative book, Abigail Thernstrom argues that southern resistance to black political power began a process by which the act was radically revised both for good and ill. Congress, the courts, and the Justice Department altered the statute to ensure the election of blacks and Hispanics to legislative bodies ranging from school boards and county councils to the U.S. Congress. Proportional racial representation_equality of results rather than mere equal opportunity_became the revised aim of the act. Blacks came to be treated as politically different_entitled to inequality in the form of a unique political privilege. Majority-minority districts that reserved seats for blacks and Hispanics succeeded in integrating southern politics. By now, however, those districts may perversely limit the potential power of black officeholders. "Max-black" districts typically elect candidates to the left of most voters; those officeholders rarely win in majority-white settings. Such race-conscious districting discourages the development of centrist, "post-racial" candidates like Barack Obama (who was defeated when he stood for Congress in one such district). The Voting Rights Act has become a period piece that today serves to keep most black legislators clustered on the sidelines of American politics - precisely the opposite of what its framers intended. A radically revised law would better serve the political interests of all Americans - minority and white voters alike.
Why Americans Still Don't Vote: And Why Politicians Want It That Way
Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward
Americans take for granted that ours is the very model of a democracy. At the core of this belief is the assumption that the right to vote is firmly established. But in fact, the United States is the only major democratic nation in which the less well-off, the young, and minorities are substantially underrepresented in the electorate. Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward were key players in the long battle to reform voter registration laws that finally resulted in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (also known as the Motor Voter law). When Why Americans Don't Vote was first published in 1988, this battle was still raging, and their book was a fiery salvo. It demonstrated that the twentieth century had witnessed a concerted effort to restrict voting by immigrants and blacks through a combination of poll taxes, literacy tests, and unwieldy voter registration requirements. Why Americans Still Don't Vote brings the story up to the present. Analyzing the results of voter registration reform, and drawing compelling historical parallels, Piven and Cloward reveal why neither of the major parties has tried to appeal to the interests of the newly registered-and thus why Americans still don't vote.
More Voting Titles
Ballot Blocked - Jesse H. Rhodes
Because They Marched - Russell Freedman
Bending Towards Justice - Gary May
Changing How America Votes - Todd Donovan
Democracy Rising - Peter F. Lau
Is Voting for Young People - Martin P. Wattenberg
One Person, No Vote - Carol Anderson
The Right to Vote - Alexander Keyssar
The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act - Charles S. Bullock, Ronald Keith Gaddie, and Justin J. Wert
Vote For Us - Joshua A. Douglas
Votes For Women - Winifred Conkling
Voting and the Spirit of American Democracy - Donald W. Rogers
Will Your Vote Count - Herma Percy
With Courage and Cloth - Ann Bausum
The Woman's Hour - Elaine Weiss
Updated and expanded to include the most current issues in this area, America Votes! Second Edition provides key information and important perspectives on election law questions which the courts are currently addressing or about to address. The chapters run the gamut from nuts-and-bolts questions about running elections (what safeguards should jurisdictions put in place to make sure that the vote totals generated by vote-counting machines are accurate?) to larger questions about the best methods for democratic governance (should states be allowed to band together and appoint presidential electors in line with the winner of the national popular vote?). Even questions such as how a third party or independent candidate should be able to gain access to the ballot raise important technical and philosophical questions. Many chapters in this book discuss both the requirements for compliance with the Voting Rights Act (including its protections for racial, ethnic and language minorities) as well as the wisdom and logic of those provisions. The Act raises complex issues of both statistical nuance and democratic theory. A timely resource for lawyers, professors, election officials, and state and local government election administrators and poll workers, America Votes! Second Edition provides a snapshot of key election and voting rights issues from the perspective of practitioners highly experienced in a wide variety of areas including redistricting, Voting Rights Act, registration, ballot access, reform measures, and much more.
Allan J. Lichtman
Americans have fought and died for the right to vote. Yet the world’s oldest continuously operating democracy guarantees no one, not even citizens, the opportunity to elect a government. In this rousing work, the best-selling author of The Case for Impeachment calls attention to the founders’ crucial error: leaving the franchise to the discretion of individual states. For most of U.S. history, America’s political leaders have considered suffrage not a natural right but a privilege restricted by wealth, sex, race, residence, literacy, criminal conviction, and citizenship. As a result, the right to vote has both expanded and contracted over time, depending on political circumstances. In the nineteenth century, states eliminated economic qualifications for voting, but the ideal of a white man’s republic persisted through much of the twentieth century. And today, voter identification laws, political gerrymandering, registration requirements, felon disenfranchisement, and voter purges deny many millions of American citizens the opportunity to express their views at the ballot box. We cannot blame the founders alone for America’s embattled vote. Allan Lichtman, who has testified in more than ninety voting rights cases, notes that subsequent generations have failed to establish suffrage as a universal right. The players in the struggle for the vote have changed over time, but the arguments remain familiar. Voting restrictions impose a grave injustice on the many disenfranchised Americans and stunt the growth of our democracy
Jeff Manza and Chrisopher Uggen
5.4 million Americans—1 in every 40 voting-age adults—are denied the right to participate in democratic elections because of a past or current felony conviction. In several American states, 1 in 4 black men cannot vote due to a felony conviction. In a country that prides itself on universal suffrage, how did the United States come to deny a voice to such a large percentage of its citizenry? What are the consequences of large-scale disenfranchisement—for election outcomes, for the reintegration of former offenders back into their communities, and for public policy more generally? Locked Out exposes one of the most important, yet little known, threats to the health of American democracy. It reveals the centrality of racial factors in the origins of these laws, and their impact on today's political landscape. Marshalling the first real empirical evidence on the issue to make a case for reform, the authors' groundbreaking analysis will inform all future policy and political debates on the laws governing the political rights of criminals.
Abigail Thernstrom
The 1965 Voting Rights Act is the crown jewel of American civil rights legislation. Its passage marked the death knell of the Jim Crow South. But that was the beginning, not the end, of an important debate on race and representation in American democracy. When is the distribution of political power racially fair? Who counts as a representative of black and Hispanic interests? How we answer such questions shapes our politics and public policy in profound but often unrecognized ways. The act's original aim was simple: Give African Americans the same political opportunity enjoyed by other citizens_the chance to vote, form political coalitions, and elect the candidates of their choice. But in the racist South, it soon became clear that access to the ballot would not, by itself, provide the political opportunity the statute promised. Most southern whites were unwilling to vote for black candidates, and southern states were ready to alter electoral systems to maintain white supremacy. In this provocative book, Abigail Thernstrom argues that southern resistance to black political power began a process by which the act was radically revised both for good and ill. Congress, the courts, and the Justice Department altered the statute to ensure the election of blacks and Hispanics to legislative bodies ranging from school boards and county councils to the U.S. Congress. Proportional racial representation_equality of results rather than mere equal opportunity_became the revised aim of the act. Blacks came to be treated as politically different_entitled to inequality in the form of a unique political privilege. Majority-minority districts that reserved seats for blacks and Hispanics succeeded in integrating southern politics. By now, however, those districts may perversely limit the potential power of black officeholders. "Max-black" districts typically elect candidates to the left of most voters; those officeholders rarely win in majority-white settings. Such race-conscious districting discourages the development of centrist, "post-racial" candidates like Barack Obama (who was defeated when he stood for Congress in one such district). The Voting Rights Act has become a period piece that today serves to keep most black legislators clustered on the sidelines of American politics - precisely the opposite of what its framers intended. A radically revised law would better serve the political interests of all Americans - minority and white voters alike.
Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward
Americans take for granted that ours is the very model of a democracy. At the core of this belief is the assumption that the right to vote is firmly established. But in fact, the United States is the only major democratic nation in which the less well-off, the young, and minorities are substantially underrepresented in the electorate. Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward were key players in the long battle to reform voter registration laws that finally resulted in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (also known as the Motor Voter law). When Why Americans Don't Vote was first published in 1988, this battle was still raging, and their book was a fiery salvo. It demonstrated that the twentieth century had witnessed a concerted effort to restrict voting by immigrants and blacks through a combination of poll taxes, literacy tests, and unwieldy voter registration requirements. Why Americans Still Don't Vote brings the story up to the present. Analyzing the results of voter registration reform, and drawing compelling historical parallels, Piven and Cloward reveal why neither of the major parties has tried to appeal to the interests of the newly registered-and thus why Americans still don't vote.
More Voting Titles
Ballot Blocked - Jesse H. Rhodes
Because They Marched - Russell Freedman
Bending Towards Justice - Gary May
Changing How America Votes - Todd Donovan
Democracy Rising - Peter F. Lau
Is Voting for Young People - Martin P. Wattenberg
One Person, No Vote - Carol Anderson
The Right to Vote - Alexander Keyssar
The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act - Charles S. Bullock, Ronald Keith Gaddie, and Justin J. Wert
Vote For Us - Joshua A. Douglas
Votes For Women - Winifred Conkling
Voting and the Spirit of American Democracy - Donald W. Rogers
Will Your Vote Count - Herma Percy
With Courage and Cloth - Ann Bausum
The Woman's Hour - Elaine Weiss
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