The Politics Of Disenfranchisement

Download or read book The Politics of Disenfranchisement written by Richard K. Scher and published by M.E. Sharpe. This book was released on 2010-10-14 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We think of our American democracy as being a model for the world--and it has been. But today it compares unfavorably in some respects, especially when it comes to the universal franchise. The right to vote is more conditional and less exercised in the United States than in many other mature democracies. As became clear to all in the presidential election of 2000, when the stakes are high, efforts to define voter eligibility and manage the voting and vote-counting process to the advantage of one's own side are part of hard-ball politics. It is that experience that gave rise to this book. Written by an author with wide expertise on Southern and Florida politics and districting, the book begins with a deceptively simple question--why is it so hard to vote in America? It proceeds, in seven chapters, to examine the ways that some people are formally or effectively disenfranchised, and to review how control of the ballot and the voting process is constrained, manipulated, and contested. The author goes beyond the questions of how and how much this happens to explore why it is the case--and why so many of us ignore, or even approve, the imperfection in our democratic system.

Download or read book Felony Disenfranchisement in America written by Katherine Irene Pettus and published by LFB Scholarly Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pettus traces felony disenfranchisement from Athenian democracy to the present. She analyzes the contradiction between present state disenfranchisement practices and voting rights jurisprudence and concludes that American citizens lack equal voting rights: the right to vote for national representatives is trumped by state laws that define felonies and the criteria for disenfranchisement. The majority of the disenfranchised today are African-American, and most felony convictions are drug-related. Nonetheless, drug use and trafficking are equally distributed across demographic groups. The current variation in state laws disenfranchising felons, the lack of standard definitions of felonies, and the racial disparities within the criminal justice system reproduce many of the inequalities of the colonial America, despite the development of federal citizenship and voting rights law since the end of the Civil War.

Download or read book Democracy and Disenfranchisement written by Claudio López-Guerra and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-06-19 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The denial of voting rights to certain types of persons continues to be a moral problem of practical significance. The disenfranchisement of persons with mental impairments, minors, noncitizen residents, nonresident citizens, and criminal offenders is a matter of controversy in many countries. How should we think morally about electoral exclusions? What should we conclude about these particular cases? This book proposes a set of principles, called the Critical Suffrage Doctrine, that defies conventional beliefs on the legitimate denial of the franchise. According to the Critical Suffrage Doctrine, in some realistic circumstances it is morally acceptable to adopt an alternative to universal suffrage that would exclude the vast majority of sane adults for being largely uninformed. Thus, contrary to what most people believe, current controversies on the franchise are not about exploring the limits of a basic moral right. Regarding such controversies, the Critical Suffrage Doctrine establishes that, in polities with universal suffrage, the blanket disenfranchisement of minors and the mentally impaired cannot be justified; that noncitizen residents should be allowed to vote; that excluding nonresident citizens is permissible; and that criminal offenders should not be disenfranchised-although facilitating voting from prison is not required in all contexts. Political theorists have rarely submitted the franchise to serious scrutiny. Hence this study makes a contribution to a largely neglected and important subject.

Download or read book Criminal Disenfranchisement in an International Perspective written by Alec C. Ewald and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-13 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book analyzes a contemporary policy question at the nexus of democracy, criminal justice, and constitutional citizenship.

Download or read book The Politics of Voter Suppression written by Tova Andrea Wang and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-27 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Politics of Voter Suppression 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.

Download or read book Voter Suppression in U.S. Elections written by Stacey Abrams and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Following the model of the first book in the "History in the Headlines (HiH) series (Catherine Clinton's Confederate Statues and Memorialization), Voter Suppression in U.S. Elections offers an enlightening, history-informed conversation about voter disenfranchisement in the United States. The book includes an edited transcript of a conversation hosted by the Library Company of Philadelphia in 2019, as well as the "ten best" articles students and interested citizens should read about voter access and suppression. The book will have an online presence that hosts additional content (more articles, podcasts, other news) on the press's Manifold digital publishing platform site"--

Download or read book Uncounted written by Gilda R. Daniels and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An answer to the assault on voting rights—crucial reading in light of the 2024 presidential election The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is considered one of the most effective pieces of legislation the United States has ever passed. It enfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters, particularly in the American South, and drew attention to the problem of voter suppression. Yet in recent years there has been a continuous assault on access to the ballot box in the form of stricter voter ID requirements, meritless claims of rigged elections, and baseless accusations of voter fraud. In the past these efforts were aimed at eliminating African American voters from the rolls, and today, new laws seek to eliminate voters of color, the poor, and the elderly, groups that historically vote for the Democratic Party. Uncounted examines the phenomenon of disenfranchisement through the lens of history, race, law, and the democratic process. Gilda R. Daniels, who served as Deputy Chief in the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and has more than two decades of voting rights experience, argues that voter suppression works in cycles, constantly adapting and finding new ways to hinder access for an exponentially growing minority population. She warns that a premeditated strategy of restrictive laws and deceptive practices has taken root and is eroding the very basis of American democracy—the right to vote!