The Electoral College and the Black and Brown Vote

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Author :
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1664169725
Total Pages : 95 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (641 download)

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Book Synopsis The Electoral College and the Black and Brown Vote by : Val Atkinson

Download or read book The Electoral College and the Black and Brown Vote written by Val Atkinson and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2021-04-21 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a searing account of the contradictions and historical complexities of the Electoral College. It is particularly focused on the negative impact the Electoral College has had on Black and Brown voters. I was an Adjunct Political Science Professor in the Political Science Department at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina from 2006 through 2013. My primary area of focus was “Media Politics” but my favorite course was American Government. Teaching this course gave me an opportunity to see that my students were grounded in the fundamentals and operations of our government — “The Why’s and How’s of American Government”. There was no shortage of primary text books for American Government but I found myself continually searching for a supplemental text to augment my particular approach to the subject. Having graduated from HBCUs and PWIs in both undergraduate and graduate studies I wanted to ensure that our students at North Carolina Central University were keenly aware of their places in American government, and how certain portions of American government were designed around and directed particularly towards their ancestors. Obviously I never found the exact supplemental text I was looking for, so I decided to write my own. So here it is — “The Electoral College and the Black and Brown Vote”. In preparing for this book I discovered that most Americans know very little about the system they use to select the leaders that will govern them, and that those that continue to harbor slaveocracy tendencies are working hard to keep the Electoral College as it is. In all things political we should start with the authorization — “where is the authority found for what we’re doing or professing to do?”. Some call this the “enabling legislation”. In this case the enabling legislation for the Electoral College is the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. In this book I examine the 12th Amendment from the prospects of the presidential election, and the responsibilities of the various states, electors and voters. I talk about the Amendment’s effect on large states and small states, and a large portion of the book is devoted to the Amendment’s impact on Black and Brown voters. This is a book for all people; students, teachers, regular citizens, and voters and non-voters. We must fully understand our electoral system if we want to ensure that it is as fair and efficient as it could possible be.

Keeping Down the Black Vote

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Keeping Down the Black Vote by : Frances Fox Piven

Download or read book Keeping Down the Black Vote written by Frances Fox Piven and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Keeping Down the Black Vote" offers a controversial examination of how the American political system works to suppress the vote--especially the votes of African Americans and minorities.

Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?

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Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 067497414X
Total Pages : 545 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? by : Alexander Keyssar

Download or read book Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? written by Alexander Keyssar and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Statesman Book of the Year “America’s greatest historian of democracy now offers an extraordinary history of the most bizarre aspect of our representative democracy—the electoral college...A brilliant contribution to a critical current debate.” —Lawrence Lessig, author of They Don’t Represent Us Every four years, millions of Americans wonder why they choose their presidents through an arcane institution that permits the loser of the popular vote to become president and narrows campaigns to swing states. Congress has tried on many occasions to alter or scuttle the Electoral College, and in this master class in American political history, a renowned Harvard professor explains its confounding persistence. After tracing the tangled origins of the Electoral College back to the Constitutional Convention, Alexander Keyssar outlines the constant stream of efforts since then to abolish or reform it. Why have they all failed? The complexity of the design and partisan one-upmanship have a lot to do with it, as do the difficulty of passing constitutional amendments and the South’s long history of restrictive voting laws. By revealing the reasons for past failures and showing how close we’ve come to abolishing the Electoral College, Keyssar offers encouragement to those hoping for change. “Conclusively demonstrates the absurdity of preserving an institution that has been so contentious throughout U.S. history and has not infrequently produced results that defied the popular will.” —Michael Kazin, The Nation “Rigorous and highly readable...shows how the electoral college has endured despite being reviled by statesmen from James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson to Edward Kennedy, Bob Dole, and Gerald Ford.” —Lawrence Douglas, Times Literary Supplement

The People’s Constitution

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Author :
Publisher : The New Press
ISBN 13 : 1620975629
Total Pages : 493 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis The People’s Constitution by : John F. Kowal

Download or read book The People’s Constitution written by John F. Kowal and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 233-year story of how the American people have taken an imperfect constitution—the product of compromises and an artifact of its time—and made it more democratic Who wrote the Constitution? That’s obvious, we think: fifty-five men in Philadelphia in 1787. But much of the Constitution was actually written later, in a series of twenty-seven amendments enacted over the course of two centuries. The real history of the Constitution is the astonishing story of how subsequent generations have reshaped our founding document amid some of the most colorful, contested, and controversial battles in American political life. It’s a story of how We the People have improved our government’s structure and expanded the scope of our democracy during eras of transformational social change. The People’s Constitution is an elegant, sobering, and masterly account of the evolution of American democracy. From the addition of the Bill of Rights, a promise made to save the Constitution from near certain defeat, to the post–Civil War battle over the Fourteenth Amendment, from the rise and fall of the “noble experiment” of Prohibition to the defeat and resurgence of an Equal Rights Amendment a century in the making, The People’s Constitution is the first book of its kind: a vital guide to America’s national charter, and an alternative history of the continuing struggle to realize the Framers’ promise of a more perfect union.

The Framers' Coup

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199942048
Total Pages : 881 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

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Book Synopsis The Framers' Coup by : Michael J. Klarman

Download or read book The Framers' Coup written by Michael J. Klarman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 881 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans revere their Constitution. However, most of us are unaware how tumultuous and improbable the drafting and ratification processes were. As Benjamin Franklin keenly observed, any assembly of men bring with them "all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views." One need not deny that the Framers had good intentions in order to believe that they also had interests. Based on prodigious research and told largely through the voices of the participants, Michael Klarman's The Framers' Coup narrates how the Framers' clashing interests shaped the Constitution--and American history itself. The Philadelphia convention could easily have been a failure, and the risk of collapse was always present. Had the convention dissolved, any number of adverse outcomes could have resulted, including civil war or a reversion to monarchy. Not only does Klarman capture the knife's-edge atmosphere of the convention, he populates his narrative with riveting and colorful stories: the rebellion of debtor farmers in Massachusetts; George Washington's uncertainty about whether to attend; Gunning Bedford's threat to turn to a European prince if the small states were denied equal representation in the Senate; slave staters' threats to take their marbles and go home if denied representation for their slaves; Hamilton's quasi-monarchist speech to the convention; and Patrick Henry's herculean efforts to defeat the Constitution in Virginia through demagoguery and conspiracy theories. The Framers' Coup is more than a compendium of great stories, however, and the powerful arguments that feature throughout will reshape our understanding of the nation's founding. Simply put, the Constitutional Convention almost didn't happen, and once it happened, it almost failed. And, even after the convention succeeded, the Constitution it produced almost failed to be ratified. Just as importantly, the Constitution was hardly the product of philosophical reflections by brilliant, disinterested statesmen, but rather ordinary interest group politics. Multiple conflicting interests had a say, from creditors and debtors to city dwellers and backwoodsmen. The upper class overwhelmingly supported the Constitution; many working class colonists were more dubious. Slave states and nonslave states had different perspectives on how well the Constitution served their interests. Ultimately, both the Constitution's content and its ratification process raise troubling questions about democratic legitimacy. The Federalists were eager to avoid full-fledged democratic deliberation over the Constitution, and the document that was ratified was stacked in favor of their preferences. And in terms of substance, the Constitution was a significant departure from the more democratic state constitutions of the 1770s. Definitive and authoritative, The Framers' Coup explains why the Framers preferred such a constitution and how they managed to persuade the country to adopt it. We have lived with the consequences, both positive and negative, ever since.

Freedom is Not Enough

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742538375
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (383 download)

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Book Synopsis Freedom is Not Enough by : Ronald W. Walters

Download or read book Freedom is Not Enough written by Ronald W. Walters and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black voters can make or break a presidential election - look at the close electoral results in 2000 and the difference the disenfranchised black vote in Florida alone might have made. Black candidates can influence a presidential election-look at the effect that Jesse Jackson had on the Democratic party, the platform, and the electorate in 1984 and 1988, and the contributions to the Democratic debates that Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton made in 2004. American presidential politics can't get along without the black vote-witness the controversy over candidates' appearing (or not) at the NAACP convention, or the extent to which candidates court (or not) the black vote in a variety of venues. It all goes back to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which formally gave African Americans the right to vote, even if after all these years that right is continuously contested. address to Howard University just before signing the Voting Rights Act), Ron Walters traces the history of the black vote since 1965, celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2005, and shows why passing a law is not the same as ensuring its enforcement, legitimacy, and opportunity.

The Turnout Gap

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108475191
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis The Turnout Gap by : Bernard L. Fraga

Download or read book The Turnout Gap written by Bernard L. Fraga and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Persistent racial/ethnic gaps in voter turnout produce elections that are increasingly unrepresentative of the wishes of all Americans.

Let the People Pick the President

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Author :
Publisher : All Points Books
ISBN 13 : 1250221986
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Let the People Pick the President by : Jesse Wegman

Download or read book Let the People Pick the President written by Jesse Wegman and published by All Points Books. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Wegman combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America’s ‘core democratic principles’ and should be done away with..." —Publishers Weekly The framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amend or abolish it more than 700 times. To this day, millions of voters, and even members of Congress, misunderstand how it works. It deepens our national divide and distorts the core democratic principles of political equality and majority rule. How can we tolerate the Electoral College when every vote does not count the same, and the candidate who gets the most votes can lose? Twice in the last five elections, the Electoral College has overridden the popular vote, calling the integrity of the entire system into question—and creating a false picture of a country divided into bright red and blue blocks when in fact we are purple from coast to coast. Even when the popular-vote winner becomes president, tens of millions of Americans—Republicans and Democrats alike—find that their votes didn't matter. And, with statewide winner-take-all rules, only a handful of battleground states ultimately decide who will become president. Now, as political passions reach a boiling point at the dawn of the 2020 race, the message from the American people is clear: The way we vote for the only official whose job it is to represent all Americans is neither fair nor just. Major reform is needed—now. Isn't it time to let the people pick the president? In this thoroughly researched and engaging call to arms, Supreme Court journalist and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman draws upon the history of the founding era, as well as information gleaned from campaign managers, field directors, and other officials from twenty-first-century Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, to make a powerful case for abolishing the antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President he shows how we can at long last make every vote in the United States count—and restore belief in our democratic system.

From Protest to Politics

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Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674325401
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (254 download)

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Book Synopsis From Protest to Politics by : Katherine Tate

Download or read book From Protest to Politics written by Katherine Tate and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The struggle for civil rights among black Americans has moved into the voting booth. How such a shift came about--and what it means--is revealed in this timely reflection on black presidential politics in recent years. Since 1984, largely as a result of Jesse Jackson's presidential bid, blacks have been galvanized politically. Drawing on a substantial national survey of black voters, Katherine Tate shows how this process manifested itself at the polls in 1984 and 1988. In an analysis of the black presidential vote by region, income, age, and gender, she is able to identify unique aspects of the black experience as they shape political behavior, and to answer long-standing questions about that behavior. How, for instance, does the rise of conservatism among blacks influence their voting patterns? Is class more powerful than race in determining voting? And what is the value of the notion of a black political party? In the 1990s, Tate suggests, black organizations will continue to stress civil rights over economic development for one clear, compelling reason: Republican resistance to addressing black needs. In this, and in the friction engendered by affirmative action, she finds an explanation for the slackening of black voting. Tate does not, however, see blacks abandoning the political game. Instead, she predicts their continued search for leaders who prefer the ballot box to other kinds of protest, and for men and women who can deliver political programs of racial equality. Unique in its focus on the black electorate, this study illuminates a little understood and tremendously significant aspect of American politics. It will benefit those who wish to understand better the subtle interplay of race and politics, at the voting booth and beyond.

The Voting Rights Act and Black Electoral Participation

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Author :
Publisher : University Press of America
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 76 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Voting Rights Act and Black Electoral Participation by : Kenneth Thompson

Download or read book The Voting Rights Act and Black Electoral Participation written by Kenneth Thompson and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 1982 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of Census Bureau data on registration and voting by black citizens over the past two decades shows the positive influence of the 1965 Voting Rights Act on electoral participation. After the passage of the act, there was more than a 50% increase in the number of black registered voters. Of black and white citizens participating in the last five presidential elections, southern blacks are the only group to report a net gain in level of participation between 1964 and 1980. There has also been a tenfold increase in the number of blacks elected as officeholders. However, this does not mean that blacks have achieved equal access to elective office. For example, it is difficult for black voters to elect officials from their communities. Data from the Justice Department's Voting Rights Division shows that a pattern of white resistance to blacks exercising their voting rights still remains strong in the South. Impediments, such as vote dilution issues, will remain salient in coming years. In the future, the consequences of the adoption by Congress of either a "result" or an "intent" test in cases brought under section 2 of the act will have an impact on the equal access of minorities to political participation. (RM)

Whose Votes Count?

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Whose Votes Count? by : Abigail M. Thernstrom

Download or read book Whose Votes Count? written by Abigail M. Thernstrom and published by Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Twentieth Century Fund study."Includes indexes. Bibliography: p. [257]-302.

Steadfast Democrats

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691199515
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Steadfast Democrats by : Ismail K. White

Download or read book Steadfast Democrats written by Ismail K. White and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-25 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Over the last half century, there has been a marked increase in ideological conservatism among African Americans, with nearly 50% of black Americans describing themselves as conservative in the 2000s, as compared to 10% in the 1970s. Support for redistributive initiatives has likewise declined. And yet, even as black Americans shift rightward on ideological and issue positions, Democratic Party identification has stayed remarkable steady, holding at 80% to 90%. It is this puzzle that White and Laird look to address in this new book: Why has ideological change failed to push black Americans into the Republican party? Most explanations for homogeneity have focused on individual dispositions, including ideology and group identity. White and Laird acknowledge that these are important, but point out that such explanations fail to account for continued political unity even in the face of individual ideological change and of individual incentives to defect from this common group behavior. The authors offer instead, or in addition, a behavioral explanation, arguing that black Americans maintain political unity through the establishment and enforcement of well-defined group expectations of black political behavior through a process they term racialized social constraint. The authors explain how black political norms came about, and what these norms are, then show (with the help of survey data and lab-in-field experiments) how such norms are enforced, and where this enforcement happens (through a focus on black institutions). They conclude by exploring the implications of the theory for electoral strategy, as well as explaining how this framework can be used to understand other voter communities"--

From Protest to Politics

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Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis From Protest to Politics by : Katherine Tate

Download or read book From Protest to Politics written by Katherine Tate and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The struggle for civil rights among black Americans has moved into the voting booth. How such a shift came about--and what it means--is revealed in this timely reflection on black presidential politics in recent years. Since 1984, largely as a result of Jesse Jackson's presidential bid, blacks have been galvanized politically. Drawing on a substantial national survey of black voters, Katherine Tate shows how this process manifested itself at the polls in 1984 and 1988. In an analysis of the black presidential vote by region, income, age, and gender, she is able to identify unique aspects of the black experience as they shape political behavior, and to answer long-standing questions about that behavior. How, for instance, does the rise of conservatism among blacks influence their voting patterns? Is class more powerful than race in determining voting? And what is the value of the notion of a black political party? In the 1990s, Tate suggests, black organizations will continue to stress civil rights over economic development for one clear, compelling reason: Republican resistance to addressing black needs. In this, and in the friction engendered by affirmative action, she finds an explanation for the slackening of black voting. Tate does not, however, see blacks abandoning the political game. Instead, she predicts their continued search for leaders who prefer the ballot box to other kinds of protest, and for men and women who can deliver political programs of racial equality. Unique in its focus on the black electorate, this study illuminates a little understood and tremendously significant aspect of American politics. It will benefit those who wish to understand better the subtle interplay of race and politics, at the voting booth and beyond.

Trump's Democrats

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Author :
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 0815738641
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Trump's Democrats by : Stephanie Muravchik

Download or read book Trump's Democrats written by Stephanie Muravchik and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why did hundreds of Democratic strongholds break for Donald Trump in 2016 and stay loyal to him in 2020? Looking for answers, Muravchik and Shields lived in three such “flipped” communities. There they discovered a political culture that was Trumpy long before the 45th president arrived on the national political scene. In these places, dominated by the white working-class, some of the most beloved and longest-serving Democratic leaders are themselves Trumpian—grandiose, combative, thin-skinned, and nepotistic. Indifferent to ideology, they promise to take care of “their people” by cutting deals—and corners if needed. Stressing loyalty, they often turn to family to fill critical political roles. Trump, resembling these old-style Democratic bosses, strikes a familiar and appealing figure in these communities. Although voters in “flipped” communities have often been portrayed as white supremacists, Muravchik and Shields find that their primary political allegiances are to place—not race. They will spend an extra dollar to patronize local businesses, and they think local jobs should go to their neighbors, not “foreigners” from neighboring counties—who are just as likely to be white and native-born. Unlike the Proud Boys, they take more pride in their local communities than in their skin color. Trump successfully courted these Democrats by promising to revitalize their struggling hometowns. Because these communities largely stuck with Trump in 2020, Biden won the presidency by just the thinnest of margins. Whether they will continue to support a Republican Party without Trump—or swing back to the Democrats—depends in part on which party can satisfy these locally grown political tastes and values. The party that does that will enjoy a stranglehold in national elections for years to come.

Gender and Elections

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107729246
Total Pages : 317 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (77 download)

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Book Synopsis Gender and Elections by : Susan J. Carroll

Download or read book Gender and Elections written by Susan J. Carroll and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-23 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third edition of Gender and Elections offers a systematic, lively, and multifaceted account of the role of gender in the electoral process through the 2012 elections. This timely yet enduring volume strikes a balance between highlighting the most important developments for women as voters and candidates in the 2012 elections and providing a more long-term, in-depth analysis of the ways that gender has helped shape the contours and outcomes of electoral politics in the United States. Individual chapters demonstrate the importance of gender in understanding and interpreting presidential elections, presidential and vice-presidential candidacies, voter participation and turnout, voting choices, congressional elections, the political involvement of Latinas, the participation of African American women, the support of political parties and women's organizations, candidate communications with voters, and state elections. Without question, Gender and Elections is the most comprehensive, reliable, and trustworthy resource on the role of gender in US electoral politics.

Voting for President

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Voting for President by : Wallace Stanley Sayre

Download or read book Voting for President written by Wallace Stanley Sayre and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evaluates the effectiveness of the present system for electing the President, and studies the merits and defects of the four interesting alternatives.

The Fight to Vote

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501116509
Total Pages : 387 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis The Fight to Vote by : Michael Waldman

Download or read book The Fight to Vote written by Michael Waldman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praised by the late John Lewis, this is the seminal book about the long and ongoing struggle to win voting rights for all citizens by the president of The Brennan Center, the leading organization on voter rights and election security, now newly revised to describe today’s intense fights over voting. As Rep. Lewis said, and recent events in state legislatures across the country demonstrate, the struggle for the right to vote is not over. In this “important and powerful” (Linda Greenhouse, former New York Times Supreme Court correspondent) book Michael Waldman describes the long struggle to extend the right to vote to all Americans. From the writing of the Constitution, and at every step along the way, as disenfranchised Americans sought this right, others have fought to stop them. Waldman traces this history from the Founders’ debates to today’s many restrictions: gerrymandering; voter ID laws; the flood of dark money released by conservative organizations; and the concerted effort in many state legislatures after the 2020 election to enact new limitations on voting. Despite the pandemic, the 2020 election had the highest turnout since 1900. In this updated edition, Waldman describes the nationwide effort that made this possible. He offers new insights into how Donald Trump’s false claims of fraud—“the Big Lie”—led to the January 6 insurrection and the fights over voting laws that followed one of the most dramatic chapters in the story of American democracy. As Waldman shows, this fight, sometimes vicious, has always been at the center of American politics because it determines the outcome of the struggle for power. The Fight to Vote is “an engaging, concise history…offering many useful reforms that advocates on both sides of the aisle should consider” (The Wall Street Journal).