One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (urspr publ 2018; utgåvan 2018)

Incredibly well-researched. clearly organized, clearly written. Especially good how she ties the past strategies of voter suppression to current ones. Could have been a depressing read but instead an energizing one because so many people have always been fighting against it, and better to know exactly what and why we are fighting. Makes an indisputable argument. ( )

Is there massive, wide-scale voter fraud? No, as numerous studies have definitively confirmed. Is there fraud? Absolutely, as this well-researched book points out. The systematic efforts at voter suppression implemented by Republican officials across the nation is an attack on the opportunity to vote, mainly, of course, directed at minorities and young people. Granted that precedent leaves to states control over voting procedures, but we clearly need national legislation (or constitutional amendment?) to proscribe this blatantly anti-democratic outrage. ( )

A strong read about an important topic that takes on more urgency in 2020. The beginning chapters tell the story of the history of suppressing the vote in the US; the rest of the chapters detail the current methods of suppression. This book motivated me to get my request for absentee ballot in the mail first thing in the morning! (I used Federal Voting Assistance Program website at FVAP.gov)

However, this is not an engaging read, so I had to pace myself with one chapter a day. The writing is very dry and almost academic; it seemed the purpose was to educate community organizers and local politicians, not the general reader/voter. It is shorter than the page count indicates; there are many pages of notes and sources - which shows Ms. Anderson's care in research. There was no narrative or people to follow through the entire book; there is just glimpses of the work community organizers are doing at the local and state level to get voters to the polls. There were a few mentions on lawsuits that are going through the courts to fight the suppression. But this was an overview, a jumping off point; I could have used a chapter on what the individual voter can do to fight suppression other than join a community group or donating money to those groups. I just don't think the average voter is the right audience for this book - this is more for organizers and activists to educate themselves and give them a starting off point for their work. ( )

For much of the time I was reading One Person, No Vote, I thought it unnecessary because we already have Give Us the Ballot (Ari Berman). However, this one 1. is from a different perspective, 2. is updated, and 3. has a nifty list of resource organizations in which to get involved/to support.

Like GUtB, OPNV is fairly dry, absolutely infuriating, and a must-read. We have behaved (are still behaving) shamefully as a country. All of us who are able to vote (those of us who still have franchise—while we still have it) must vote for candidates who will do what's right for the entire country and all its people, not for those who are power-hungry and greedy of resources. ( )

This is the second book by this author that I have read. Her first book was more comprehensive than this one, but, as I look back at what I wrote about that first book, this one, also, is quite energetic in its presentation. I related the first book to a fiery court summation by an attorney, as opposed to the more methodical laying out of evidence throughout the court case. This book concentrates on the suppression of voting by minorities in America. Ari Berman's Give Us the Ballot covers similar ground, spending more time on federal administration and law changes, and was written before the Russians teamed up with various states to manipulate voter turnout in 2016. This new book by the author lays out a great deal of Jim Crow excesses, but also goes full bore into the more recent work of Republicans in Kansas, Wisconsin, Ohio, Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina, to maximize white votes over that of minorities. (No one can accuse people with deep hatred of people not like them of not being creative.) The author's chapter on the Roy Moore/Doug Jones senatorial campaign is especially enlightening on just how big the obstacles are to overcome these voter suppression efforts, but, very importantly, that those obstacles can, indeed, be overcome. This is not just a book of opinions. It has nearly 100 pages of supporting notes to justify her points. As I said of the author's first book, if you are willing to read just one book on the subject, her work this time out is also an excellent choice. ( )