The Politics of Voter Suppression

Aug 16, 2012

Authors: Tova Andrea Wang

Publisher(s): The Century Foundation

A Century Reads Book.  Listen to audio from author, Tova Wang.

200 pages/$24.95

Available from Cornell University Press.

Also available from Amazon as in Kindle e-book.

View video of the related event.

The Politics of Voter Suppression: Defending and Expanding American's Right to Vote arrives in time to assess actual practices at the polls this fall and to reengage with debates about voter suppression tactics such as requiring specific forms of identification. Tova Andrea Wang examines the history of how U.S. election reforms have been manipulated for partisan advantage and establishes a new framework for analyzing current laws and policies. The tactics that have been employed to suppress voting in recent elections are not novel, she finds, but rather build upon the strategies used by a variety of actors going back nearly a century and a half. This continuity, along with the shift to a Republican domination of voter suppression efforts for the past fifty years, should inform what we think about reform policy today.

Wang argues that activities that suppress voting are almost always illegitimate, while reforms that increase participation are nearly always legitimate. In short, use and abuse of election laws and policies to suppress votes has obvious detrimental impacts on democracy itself. Such activities are also harmful because of their direct impacts on actual election outcomes. Wang regards as beneficial any legal effort to increase the number of Americans involved in the electoral system. This includes efforts that are focused on improving voter turnout among certain populations typically regarded as supporting one party, as long as the methods and means for boosting participation are open to all. Wang identifies and describes a number of specific legitimate and positive reforms that will increase voter turnout.

Learn more in Wang’s Blog of the Century post,  9 Ways Voting is Suppressed in America.

Press Reviews

“This well-researched and well-argued book succeeds in illustrating how, for short-term partisan gain, some political leaders have undermined America's bid for 'universal suffrage' and what can be done to significantly broaden the electorate.”—Publishers Weekly (11 June 2012)

Experts

“Tova Andrea Wang nails it! The great promise of America loses all meaning when roadblocks are placed between citizens and the voting booth. This important book drives that point home with clarity and enormous insight. It will both enlighten and disturb you.”—Bob Herbert, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos, and former Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times

“It is one of our country's great achievements that since our founding, we have become steadily more democratic, extending the right to vote to those without property, to African Americans, to women, and to others previously excluded from the joys and responsibilities of self-rule. But there is a constant and often insidious pushback against broad political participation, and Tova Andrea Wang tells the story of voter suppression efforts with passion, care and great shrewdness. The Politics of Voter Suppression is an essential book at a time when efforts to keep citizens from the polls have intensified. And it offers a highly practical recipe for making our nation more democratic and our elections a truer reflection of the will of all the people.”—E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Our Divided Political Heart and syndicated columnist

“Tova Wang has written a well-researched and balanced account of past and modern-day voter suppression, the scope and extent of which will no doubt come as a surprise, and shock, to many readers.”—Laughlin McDonald, Director, ACLU Voting Rights Project

“If you care about the current state of American democracy, you should read The Politics of Voter Suppression. Tova Wang's bold and passionate book explains how and why 'voter suppression’ came to be such a visible, and partisan, issue. It also offers a compelling vision of ‘inclusion’ as a principle that ought to govern our electoral practices.”—Alexander Keyssar, Stirling Professor of History and Social Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, author of The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the U.S.

“In The Politics of Voter Suppression, Tova Andrea Wang skillfully weaves together historical and contemporary examples of voter suppression. The picture that emerges should worry anyone who believes that all citizens should have an equal voice in our democracy. Wang amasses a formidable body of evidence against those who would impair the fundamental right to vote. She also makes a compelling case for reforms like Election Day Registration that would promote a more inclusive democracy.”—Daniel Tokaji, Robert M. Duncan/Jones Day Designated Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law