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One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of White Rage, the startling—and timely—history of voter suppression in America, with a foreword by Senator Dick Durbin.
In her New York Times bestseller White Rage, Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively allowed districts with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice.
Focusing on the aftermath of Shelby, Anderson follows the astonishing story of government-dictated racial discrimination unfolding before our very eyes as more and more states adopt voter suppression laws. In gripping, enlightening detail she explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. And with vivid characters, she explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans as the nation gears up for the 2018 midterm elections.
In her New York Times bestseller White Rage, Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively allowed districts with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice.
Focusing on the aftermath of Shelby, Anderson follows the astonishing story of government-dictated racial discrimination unfolding before our very eyes as more and more states adopt voter suppression laws. In gripping, enlightening detail she explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. And with vivid characters, she explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans as the nation gears up for the 2018 midterm elections.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 11, 2018
556 people are currently reading
16255 people want to read
About the author
Carol Anderson
10 books849 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Carol Anderson is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Professor Anderson’s research and teaching focus on public policy; particularly the ways that domestic and international policies intersect through the issues of race, justice and equality in the United States.
Carol Anderson is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Professor Anderson’s research and teaching focus on public policy; particularly the ways that domestic and international policies intersect through the issues of race, justice and equality in the United States.
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November 3, 2018
This is a terrifying look at racially motivated systematic voter suppression. The author not only provided the latest information but also a history of voter suppression.
The book is meticulously researched and well written. Anderson writes in an academic style. The 2016 presidential election was the first election held without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act. In 2013 the Supreme Court revoked parts of the Voting Rights Act. Anderson proved step by step that the low turn out of black voters for Hillary was not due to apathy but to voter suppression. Since 2016 Anderson revealed that many states have made in harder for minorities to vote and are continuing to make it even harder.
The information in this book makes me very angry at the systemic methods of voter suppression. Next it will be educated women that will be blocked from voting just because we may not agree with whoever “they” are. Just think how much better this country could be today if all this work into voter suppression were put toward solving the country’s problems.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is six hours and 32 minutes. Janina Edwards does an excellent job narrating the book. Edwards is an actress and specializes in the accents of Africa and the West Indies.
The book is meticulously researched and well written. Anderson writes in an academic style. The 2016 presidential election was the first election held without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act. In 2013 the Supreme Court revoked parts of the Voting Rights Act. Anderson proved step by step that the low turn out of black voters for Hillary was not due to apathy but to voter suppression. Since 2016 Anderson revealed that many states have made in harder for minorities to vote and are continuing to make it even harder.
The information in this book makes me very angry at the systemic methods of voter suppression. Next it will be educated women that will be blocked from voting just because we may not agree with whoever “they” are. Just think how much better this country could be today if all this work into voter suppression were put toward solving the country’s problems.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is six hours and 32 minutes. Janina Edwards does an excellent job narrating the book. Edwards is an actress and specializes in the accents of Africa and the West Indies.
December 24, 2019
One Person, No Vote chronicles the insidious practice of voter suppression that has not only shaped shameful parts of our nation's history, but is still in practice today. Hiding behind the fake battle cry of voter fraud, one party leverages strict voter ID requirements, voter roll purging, closing of voting stations, and gerrymandering to systematically diminish the voting power of certain demographics while inflating the influence of its own supporters.
You know, if I were in politics, and I realized my party's base was slowly shrinking over time because the vast majority of people didn't agree with me anymore, my first thought would be to figure out what was wrong with my policies and how I can change them to be more inclusive and attractive to a wider demographic. It would never occur to me to restrict voting IDs to only take valid driver's licenses, which I know a large percentage of the people who are voting against me don't have, then close every DMV in the area where they live, then move all the voting stations so far away from them and public transportation that they can't reach them, and then sit back and congratulate myself on a job well done. I mean, we do still live in a democracy, right? And this isn't some rare thing, happening in the middle of nowhere. Many states are actively attempting or have successfully achieved these measures.
Needless to say, this book was maddening to read. It made me feel so frustrated and angry to hear of all the injustices being perpetrated against these people who are already the most downtrodden of society, being its poor and minorities. This targeted disenfranchisement, if successful, ensures that their needs and their voices will never be heard or advocated for.
And yet, I can't rate this book higher because it was so tedious to read. It was dry, filled with paragraphs and paragraphs of data and statistics. It breaks down every aspect of modern voter suppression in the most technical way. And while it tries to tell the human side of the story, it does so from a macro level, not from an actual first person's perspective, which makes it really hard to get into the narrative and retain everything I read. The book's not that long, only 200 pages, and still it took me six days to get through it.
But even though this is tough to read at times, both due to the frustrating topic and the tedious way it's written, it's still a timely and relevant topic, one which is crucial to understanding the current state of our democracy and why recent politics has been the way it is. For that, I'm glad I picked up this book.
You know, if I were in politics, and I realized my party's base was slowly shrinking over time because the vast majority of people didn't agree with me anymore, my first thought would be to figure out what was wrong with my policies and how I can change them to be more inclusive and attractive to a wider demographic. It would never occur to me to restrict voting IDs to only take valid driver's licenses, which I know a large percentage of the people who are voting against me don't have, then close every DMV in the area where they live, then move all the voting stations so far away from them and public transportation that they can't reach them, and then sit back and congratulate myself on a job well done. I mean, we do still live in a democracy, right? And this isn't some rare thing, happening in the middle of nowhere. Many states are actively attempting or have successfully achieved these measures.
Needless to say, this book was maddening to read. It made me feel so frustrated and angry to hear of all the injustices being perpetrated against these people who are already the most downtrodden of society, being its poor and minorities. This targeted disenfranchisement, if successful, ensures that their needs and their voices will never be heard or advocated for.
And yet, I can't rate this book higher because it was so tedious to read. It was dry, filled with paragraphs and paragraphs of data and statistics. It breaks down every aspect of modern voter suppression in the most technical way. And while it tries to tell the human side of the story, it does so from a macro level, not from an actual first person's perspective, which makes it really hard to get into the narrative and retain everything I read. The book's not that long, only 200 pages, and still it took me six days to get through it.
But even though this is tough to read at times, both due to the frustrating topic and the tedious way it's written, it's still a timely and relevant topic, one which is crucial to understanding the current state of our democracy and why recent politics has been the way it is. For that, I'm glad I picked up this book.
July 1, 2020
5 stars for content and 3 stars for style, One Person, No Vote explains how voter suppression, a racist and abominable part of the United States’ history, continues on to this very day. I appreciated this book because Carol Anderson writes with clarity and intelligence about how racist practices we associate with the past (e.g., poll taxes, literary tests) still occur, in the form of voter ID requirements, gerrymandering, voter roll purging, and more. Even if some of ya’ll might go off on me in the comments for saying this, I find it sickening that Republicans would literally disenfranchise BIPOC so that they can maintain their power and put forth policies and laws that make the most marginalized even more oppressed. Voter disenfranchisement is sickening and something to consider before making comments about how more people just need to go vote, especially BIPOC, who often lose the capacity to vote due to the cruelty of Republicans in power.
While I enjoyed the content and main message of this book, I did find the writing style tedious. It felt like reading fact after fact after fact, to the point where in some places the information started to blur together in mind and make it difficult to focus. Perhaps this blurring happened because I relate a bit more to human emotions and psychology than to historical facts, even if these facts do of course affect the living conditions of many BIPOC in the United States. Overall, I would recommend this book to those interested in racial justice and the history of still ongoing voter suppression in the United States.
While I enjoyed the content and main message of this book, I did find the writing style tedious. It felt like reading fact after fact after fact, to the point where in some places the information started to blur together in mind and make it difficult to focus. Perhaps this blurring happened because I relate a bit more to human emotions and psychology than to historical facts, even if these facts do of course affect the living conditions of many BIPOC in the United States. Overall, I would recommend this book to those interested in racial justice and the history of still ongoing voter suppression in the United States.
December 24, 2021
This was fairly current. Up to the 2020 election. Anderson is prescient. She has been screaming about losing our democracy for many years. And the dirty tricks are overt. They are not even trying to hide the racial bias. Anderson is direct with few frills. She comes at you with facts and historical analysis. There isn't really that much commentary here. But what little there is, is angry. This short book is quite dense and took me a while to get through, not because it is dry but because it is packed. There isn't much unknown here for those who follow politics, but Anderson is laser focused so the volume of data can be overwhelming. I admire the academic rigor it took to put this together and yes I can feel the righteous anger in the writing. Anderson is correct and very concerned about the future of voting and the political intentions to "cheat" and claim "protecting the elections". Americans are not paying attention and frankly the GOP has been working to undermine elections for years.
Anderson takes us on a frightening journey of voter suppression in 5 parts: History of disenfranchisement, Voter ID, Voter Roll Purges, Rigging the Rules and the Resistance. The afterward is almost as long as the rest of the book where she assesses the concept of "We are Going to Warrior Up". The end result is effective. This very focus slim book will make you angry and hopefully activate you to vote and make sure your vote counts. Thorough and excellent.
4.5 Stars
Read on kindle
Anderson takes us on a frightening journey of voter suppression in 5 parts: History of disenfranchisement, Voter ID, Voter Roll Purges, Rigging the Rules and the Resistance. The afterward is almost as long as the rest of the book where she assesses the concept of "We are Going to Warrior Up". The end result is effective. This very focus slim book will make you angry and hopefully activate you to vote and make sure your vote counts. Thorough and excellent.
4.5 Stars
Read on kindle
November 28, 2018
This is an accessible, comprehensive overview of voter suppression (and its underlying racists motivations) in the US.
This was short--about 150 pages--which I really appreciated. Anderson's writing was clear, concise, and generally enjoyable (though the topic itself is utterly infuriating). I liked the fact that the book is noticeably partisan. I think sometimes nonfiction authors think you can't let any partisanship show in order to be a true work of nonfiction, but quite frankly that's bullshit. The GOP's policies around voting are racist and anti-democracy, and it was refreshing to read a book that confronted this head-on.
At times I found some of the metaphors used to be a bit corny, but I did like that Anderson avoids some of the pitfalls of academic writing. Too often academic writers are overly verbose and talk in logical circles in an effort to seem sophisticated and well-researched, but it's really just bad writing. Anderson's writing has all of the knowledge, all of the historical context, all of the research, but none of the pretension. It's SO REFRESHING.
I think this is such an important topic, and is a great place to start for people unfamiliar with the problem of voter suppression in the US.
This was short--about 150 pages--which I really appreciated. Anderson's writing was clear, concise, and generally enjoyable (though the topic itself is utterly infuriating). I liked the fact that the book is noticeably partisan. I think sometimes nonfiction authors think you can't let any partisanship show in order to be a true work of nonfiction, but quite frankly that's bullshit. The GOP's policies around voting are racist and anti-democracy, and it was refreshing to read a book that confronted this head-on.
At times I found some of the metaphors used to be a bit corny, but I did like that Anderson avoids some of the pitfalls of academic writing. Too often academic writers are overly verbose and talk in logical circles in an effort to seem sophisticated and well-researched, but it's really just bad writing. Anderson's writing has all of the knowledge, all of the historical context, all of the research, but none of the pretension. It's SO REFRESHING.
I think this is such an important topic, and is a great place to start for people unfamiliar with the problem of voter suppression in the US.
August 18, 2020
To those Americans not born yesterday there are no revelations here. One of our two major political parties has determined electoral success depends upon undermining democratic values and depriving hundreds of thousands of citizens of their right to vote. The vast majority of these disenfranchised Americans are black or Hispanic and reside in states formerly subject to the Voting Rights Act.
Unfortunately, as Ms. Anderson so carefully documents, it is not a new page in the book of American politics. The techniques are a little more precious today -- she described them as not Jim Crow, but Mr. James Crow. I am sure Ms. Anderson expected strident reaction to her reporting and analysis of voter suppression in the U. S, so she included 133 pages of supporting documentation and footnotes from a variety of credible sources to back up her account. If you're not a news hound, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy may be informative. It rates Three Stars in my library.
Unfortunately, as Ms. Anderson so carefully documents, it is not a new page in the book of American politics. The techniques are a little more precious today -- she described them as not Jim Crow, but Mr. James Crow. I am sure Ms. Anderson expected strident reaction to her reporting and analysis of voter suppression in the U. S, so she included 133 pages of supporting documentation and footnotes from a variety of credible sources to back up her account. If you're not a news hound, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy may be informative. It rates Three Stars in my library.
June 5, 2018
This book immediately puts to bed the silly myth that the results of the 2016 election were due to apathy on the part of African and Hispanic Americans. Their votes were suppressed, deliberately. This country has a long tradition of suppressing minority votes. Laws passed over the years have made it harder but the conservatives have responded with increasing ingenuity. And now with the gutting of the VRA there seems to be very little limit to how far they'll go to thwart the concept of one person, one vote. This book is insightful and rage inducing. You'll feel the decks stacked against you as you read it but Carol Anderson also offers blueprints of how to fight back and tells the stories of those who have been standing up against this oppression since the days after the Civil War.
December 18, 2018
This was a well-researched and clearly articulated account of historical and on-going voter suppression in the US. The details here will astonish and infuriate any conscientious citizen. Required reading.
October 8, 2018
Super relevant and timely. Well researched and smart. The writing is very dry. Lots of figures and data points. A thorough break down of voter suppression in a technical way.
October 14, 2018
As in her previous book, White Rage, Carol Anderson packs a ton of information into a small space with One Person, No Vote. This overview of voter suppression in America, from Reconstruction into the present day, will enrage you. As it should.
July 11, 2018
A jarring and important overview of the many ways that the right to vote has been suppressed, denied and tampered with for millions of citizens since the beginning of our democracy. Certainly significant as the 2018 midterms approach, but also in light incremental and accelerating rollbacks of key aspects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Of particular interest are appalling historical moments featuring Jeff Sessions and Kris Kobach, among a number of bad actors and platforms that have been key to helping to undermine our democracy. It's not light reading, but it shouldn't be.
January 3, 2024
Voter suppression throughout our history up to and including today: voter id laws, voter roll purges, attacks on the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and rigging the rules and districts (gerrymandering). Very well done.
January 14, 2025
I have worked in voting rights and the democracy space for several years but hadn't gotten around to this until now. Anderson delivers a sharp, wrenching account of Jim Crow voter suppression efforts in America and how they have evolved in our lifetime to disenfranchise at a scale racists previously only dreamed of. Whether it's racial gerrymandering or unclear requirements for returning citizens to regain the franchise, our civic voice is being stifled and Americans en masse are experiencing "civil death."
Sadly, because the book ends in 2017, one does not benefit from Anderson's lens on how election denial fueled and supercharged restrictions to the vote in GOP-led states after 2020, with many states breaking records in the amount of voter suppression legislation introduced each year. Would also love to read Anderson's perspective on the SAVE Act, which adds a needless citizenship requirement to voting to further restrict attempts to engage in the civic process.
And, as always, the petty, cruel indignities of voter suppression continue: in every precinct with a 5 hour line, in every polling station with one working machine to serve an entire county, in repeated threats of prosecution for voting behavior and mistakes made by volunteer poll workers. These continued roadblocks are matched by increased access to the vote in Dem states, creating a polarized and utterly different voting experience solely by location. Anderson closes by remembering Lincoln's prophetic words: that to exist in a Union half-slave and half-free is untenable.
Sadly, because the book ends in 2017, one does not benefit from Anderson's lens on how election denial fueled and supercharged restrictions to the vote in GOP-led states after 2020, with many states breaking records in the amount of voter suppression legislation introduced each year. Would also love to read Anderson's perspective on the SAVE Act, which adds a needless citizenship requirement to voting to further restrict attempts to engage in the civic process.
And, as always, the petty, cruel indignities of voter suppression continue: in every precinct with a 5 hour line, in every polling station with one working machine to serve an entire county, in repeated threats of prosecution for voting behavior and mistakes made by volunteer poll workers. These continued roadblocks are matched by increased access to the vote in Dem states, creating a polarized and utterly different voting experience solely by location. Anderson closes by remembering Lincoln's prophetic words: that to exist in a Union half-slave and half-free is untenable.
January 28, 2021
Another mind-blowing, heartbreaking, anger making, hope generating book that I highly recommend
March 7, 2024
This book made me sad and mad over the racists who
prevented/ prevent Americans of color from voting.
Gave the book 4 stars.
Dr. Anderson, the author, is a professor/ historian
at Emery University. She has a PhD in history. The
Washington Post, Boston Globe, NPR etc named this
as one of the best books of the year in 2019. She was
a finalist for the PEN/ Galbraith Award in non-fiction.
Dr. Anderson traced Dixiecrats & Republicans
willfully engaging in voter suppression. Starting
w/ literacy tests, poll taxes (which were retroactive),
arbitrarily shortening the days or hours the court-
house/ other venue was open for voter registration,
intending to dupe and exclude black voters.
More modern hateful practices include: being incon-
sistent on what voter IDs were acceptable at the polls
(contradicting federal law), requiring proof of citizen-
ship or proof voter paid property tax (both illegal
under federal law, which provided a list of accepted
IDs), moving voting sites/ decreasing the number of
precincts, having less than needed voting machines/
inoperable ones, having a sheriff at the polling place
(intimidation), purging voter lists (many purged w/o
justification), gerrymandering. One state's Secretary
of State (who oversaw voting in his state) closed a
voting site b/c it didn't comply w/ The Americans w/
Disability Act (ADA) as far as physical accommodation
of the disabled ie wheelchair ramps, etc. The irony was
the state & local government knew for 6 yrs that pre-
cinct was ADA non-compliant but did nothing to
improve it!!!
The Secretary of State for Texas purged 95K voters &
claimed 58K were non-US citizens. Journalists
researched and discovered most of the 58K were
naturalized citizens!!! A US district judge stopped
further purges. The 45th President, DJT, and his AG
sided w/ the Texas Secretary of State.
The author noted many churches and citizen groups
who volunteered to do voter education, help voters
obtain the proper ID, get to the polls etc.
It made me angry that Dixiecrats (white supremist
Southern Democrats) & Republican politicos cheated
(& continue to do so) black Americans from voting,
and also in more recent yrs Latino & Asian Americans
from voting. In many cases they got away w/ their
illegal actions. The US Supreme Court demonstrated
their complicit ways w/ these misguided politicos.
I only wished the author went into more detail about
absentee ballots.
prevented/ prevent Americans of color from voting.
Gave the book 4 stars.
Dr. Anderson, the author, is a professor/ historian
at Emery University. She has a PhD in history. The
Washington Post, Boston Globe, NPR etc named this
as one of the best books of the year in 2019. She was
a finalist for the PEN/ Galbraith Award in non-fiction.
Dr. Anderson traced Dixiecrats & Republicans
willfully engaging in voter suppression. Starting
w/ literacy tests, poll taxes (which were retroactive),
arbitrarily shortening the days or hours the court-
house/ other venue was open for voter registration,
intending to dupe and exclude black voters.
More modern hateful practices include: being incon-
sistent on what voter IDs were acceptable at the polls
(contradicting federal law), requiring proof of citizen-
ship or proof voter paid property tax (both illegal
under federal law, which provided a list of accepted
IDs), moving voting sites/ decreasing the number of
precincts, having less than needed voting machines/
inoperable ones, having a sheriff at the polling place
(intimidation), purging voter lists (many purged w/o
justification), gerrymandering. One state's Secretary
of State (who oversaw voting in his state) closed a
voting site b/c it didn't comply w/ The Americans w/
Disability Act (ADA) as far as physical accommodation
of the disabled ie wheelchair ramps, etc. The irony was
the state & local government knew for 6 yrs that pre-
cinct was ADA non-compliant but did nothing to
improve it!!!
The Secretary of State for Texas purged 95K voters &
claimed 58K were non-US citizens. Journalists
researched and discovered most of the 58K were
naturalized citizens!!! A US district judge stopped
further purges. The 45th President, DJT, and his AG
sided w/ the Texas Secretary of State.
The author noted many churches and citizen groups
who volunteered to do voter education, help voters
obtain the proper ID, get to the polls etc.
It made me angry that Dixiecrats (white supremist
Southern Democrats) & Republican politicos cheated
(& continue to do so) black Americans from voting,
and also in more recent yrs Latino & Asian Americans
from voting. In many cases they got away w/ their
illegal actions. The US Supreme Court demonstrated
their complicit ways w/ these misguided politicos.
I only wished the author went into more detail about
absentee ballots.
July 12, 2020
A must read to understand the current corrosion of American democracy.
Carol Anderson performs an undeniable scholarly, well-research and impassioned demonstration of voter suppression, both modern and past. She takes time setting the table explaining the reconstruction era and the attempts thereafter to stop black people from voting. You'll learn about poll taxes and literary taxes in quite good detail.
The bulk of the book is spent on modern attempts of voter suppression. Anderson makes a compelling case against the GOP's strategy. Instead of appealing to minority votes by changing platform, the GOP has simply employed tools of modern day voter suppression. The biggest tool they've used is propagating the myth of voter fraud. Anderson unequivocally demonstrates that voter fraud is, and never has been, an appreciable phenomenon in out modern election process. Yet, many politicians claim it is a threat to our democracy and then use this phantom threat to lay down voter ID laws. Politicians know where underprivileged and minority voters are vulnerable and then exploit that weakness with surgical precision.
The result has been a corrosion of our democratic process. Gerrymandering has been one of the most insidious forces in our election process that continues to this day with impunity, all designed to suppress the votes of the poor, the young and people of color. Anderson leaves little room to doubt with the volumes of research she puts forth here.
She spends a lot of time on the campaign of Roy Moore and the grassroots efforts that needed to be employed to combat the mechanics or suppression that are in place.
I highly recommend this book for those not only interested in racial justice but are worried about the fidelity of American elections.
Carol Anderson performs an undeniable scholarly, well-research and impassioned demonstration of voter suppression, both modern and past. She takes time setting the table explaining the reconstruction era and the attempts thereafter to stop black people from voting. You'll learn about poll taxes and literary taxes in quite good detail.
The bulk of the book is spent on modern attempts of voter suppression. Anderson makes a compelling case against the GOP's strategy. Instead of appealing to minority votes by changing platform, the GOP has simply employed tools of modern day voter suppression. The biggest tool they've used is propagating the myth of voter fraud. Anderson unequivocally demonstrates that voter fraud is, and never has been, an appreciable phenomenon in out modern election process. Yet, many politicians claim it is a threat to our democracy and then use this phantom threat to lay down voter ID laws. Politicians know where underprivileged and minority voters are vulnerable and then exploit that weakness with surgical precision.
The result has been a corrosion of our democratic process. Gerrymandering has been one of the most insidious forces in our election process that continues to this day with impunity, all designed to suppress the votes of the poor, the young and people of color. Anderson leaves little room to doubt with the volumes of research she puts forth here.
She spends a lot of time on the campaign of Roy Moore and the grassroots efforts that needed to be employed to combat the mechanics or suppression that are in place.
I highly recommend this book for those not only interested in racial justice but are worried about the fidelity of American elections.
September 21, 2018
An incisive and terrifying look at systematic, racially motivated voter suppression in America and the destruction it is wreaking on our democracy. One Person No Vote traces the history of voter suppression in it's worst forms through modern day shenanigans that are not obvious to the average person. Slow to start, this does feel like a fairly academic book, but having finished I want to find out what I can do to help improve this abysmal reality. It takes time to read, but it is also quite short (around 160 pages of actual text) and well worth the effort. This should be required reading! As a political moderate who cares deeply about the health of our democracy and the enfranchisement of ALL voters, this book has me seriously questioning my party affiliation. Highly recommend.
November 4, 2018
A bit dry, but provides critical info on voter suppression in recent elections (particularly Roy Moore in Alabama). Definitely recommend.
August 10, 2018
As we hear from so many in conservative circles, the Constitution is law and it's the defining document everything should flow from. OK, I think in a broad sense we can all agree that's where our country took the first shaky step towards the vision of a Democratic Republic. Yet, almost from the time the Equal Protection Clause was enshrined to protect our right to votes as citizens for those we want to represent us in Congress and elsewhere, it was attacked, undermined, avoided, and even openly ignored by those in power and wanted to stay that way.
One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson does an incredible job by showing the immediate relevance to the election of Donald Trump, then takes it all the way back to the Jim Crow South where the Democratic former slave owners and other white folks who openly vowed to keep African Americans in their place, which was most certainly not in the voting booth.
The right to vote is completely colorblind, but the results of disrupting and destroying that right is admittedly racist. If you could find in history where a county or district was redrawn to actually lower the amount of eligible white voters, you can be sure underneath the veneer are ripples from that decision directed solely at squashing the minority vote.
Anderson lifts every rock and opens the door to politician's closets long since gone to detail and display how all the efforts wind together into a single rope binding those they deem 'unworthy', 'unclean', and 'unAmerican.' Here are some examples that only scratch the surface, but they will prove the length of time and depth of inhumanity employed in these efforts:
"Senator Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), one of the most virulent racists to grace the halls of Congress, boasted of the chicanery nearly half a century later. "What keeps 'em [blacks] from voting is section 244 of the [Mississippi] Constitution of 1890...It says that a man to register must be able to read and explain the Constitution or explain the Constitution when read to him." Mississippi, the senator bragged, "then wrote a constitution that damn few white men and no n*****s at all can explain.""
That rule in the Mississippi Constitution was over 120-years ago. Today is only different in the language, but not the intent:
"He [Brian Kemp (R-GA)] has displayed a tendency to consistently err on the side of disenfranchisement: such as "when his office lost voter registrations for 40,000 Georgians, the vast majority whom happen to be people of color"; and when his office leaked social security number and driver's license data of voters not once but twice; and when he refused to upgrade the voting machines throughout the state that received an F rating because they were easily hackable and "haven't been updated since 2005 and run on Windows 2000." Kemp had also "crusaded against" and "investigated" voter registration drives by Asian Americans and predominantly black groups. He actually launched a criminal inquiry into the registration of 85,000 new voters, "many of them minorities," but "found problems with only 25 registrants, and "not surprisingly, after all the time, money, and publicity, "no charges were filed.""
Democrats created the beast of voter disenfranchisement with voter intimidation and violence, but when the GOP came in during the Southern Strategy, they realized quickly the unpalatable terms and manner of think could no longer survive. Hence the appearance of "voter fraud" and a gaggle of new "voter ID" laws to protect the integrity of our elections. The GOP took the beast and let it gorge through the advent of innocuous sounding legislation all over the country. One of the crowning achievements of their current "voter ID" white knight, Kris Kobach (R-KS), was the creation of Crosscheck, and interstate program that would collect voter data and double-check them with other states looking for those evildoers who were registered in two different places.
In case you were thinking people like that would get run out of office, the truth is far sadder. Kris Kobach is running for Governor of Kansas, Brian Kemp is running for Governor of GA in the 2018 midterms. Kemp was endorsed by Trump and won the primary and will now go up against Stacy Adams (D-GA) who could very well become the first black woman to sit in the governor's chair. Kobach is still championing the totally unverified and clear straw man argument of "immense voter fraud" and his online baby, Crosscheck, which when studied has a failure rate of over 99%. As of comments I read only today, folks inside the White House are crossing fingers and toes Trump does not endorse Kobach because the Don Quixote of voting trickery has become almost as toxic as Trump himself.
One Person, No Vote should be sent to the offices of every politician in Congress, and every state legislature to remind them and warn them of the breadth of how much damage this programs and crooked politicians have already done. Everything you need to arm yourself and others against losing your Constitutionally protected right is in the book. Read it, read it again, then take action.
One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson does an incredible job by showing the immediate relevance to the election of Donald Trump, then takes it all the way back to the Jim Crow South where the Democratic former slave owners and other white folks who openly vowed to keep African Americans in their place, which was most certainly not in the voting booth.
The right to vote is completely colorblind, but the results of disrupting and destroying that right is admittedly racist. If you could find in history where a county or district was redrawn to actually lower the amount of eligible white voters, you can be sure underneath the veneer are ripples from that decision directed solely at squashing the minority vote.
Anderson lifts every rock and opens the door to politician's closets long since gone to detail and display how all the efforts wind together into a single rope binding those they deem 'unworthy', 'unclean', and 'unAmerican.' Here are some examples that only scratch the surface, but they will prove the length of time and depth of inhumanity employed in these efforts:
"Senator Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), one of the most virulent racists to grace the halls of Congress, boasted of the chicanery nearly half a century later. "What keeps 'em [blacks] from voting is section 244 of the [Mississippi] Constitution of 1890...It says that a man to register must be able to read and explain the Constitution or explain the Constitution when read to him." Mississippi, the senator bragged, "then wrote a constitution that damn few white men and no n*****s at all can explain.""
That rule in the Mississippi Constitution was over 120-years ago. Today is only different in the language, but not the intent:
"He [Brian Kemp (R-GA)] has displayed a tendency to consistently err on the side of disenfranchisement: such as "when his office lost voter registrations for 40,000 Georgians, the vast majority whom happen to be people of color"; and when his office leaked social security number and driver's license data of voters not once but twice; and when he refused to upgrade the voting machines throughout the state that received an F rating because they were easily hackable and "haven't been updated since 2005 and run on Windows 2000." Kemp had also "crusaded against" and "investigated" voter registration drives by Asian Americans and predominantly black groups. He actually launched a criminal inquiry into the registration of 85,000 new voters, "many of them minorities," but "found problems with only 25 registrants, and "not surprisingly, after all the time, money, and publicity, "no charges were filed.""
Democrats created the beast of voter disenfranchisement with voter intimidation and violence, but when the GOP came in during the Southern Strategy, they realized quickly the unpalatable terms and manner of think could no longer survive. Hence the appearance of "voter fraud" and a gaggle of new "voter ID" laws to protect the integrity of our elections. The GOP took the beast and let it gorge through the advent of innocuous sounding legislation all over the country. One of the crowning achievements of their current "voter ID" white knight, Kris Kobach (R-KS), was the creation of Crosscheck, and interstate program that would collect voter data and double-check them with other states looking for those evildoers who were registered in two different places.
In case you were thinking people like that would get run out of office, the truth is far sadder. Kris Kobach is running for Governor of Kansas, Brian Kemp is running for Governor of GA in the 2018 midterms. Kemp was endorsed by Trump and won the primary and will now go up against Stacy Adams (D-GA) who could very well become the first black woman to sit in the governor's chair. Kobach is still championing the totally unverified and clear straw man argument of "immense voter fraud" and his online baby, Crosscheck, which when studied has a failure rate of over 99%. As of comments I read only today, folks inside the White House are crossing fingers and toes Trump does not endorse Kobach because the Don Quixote of voting trickery has become almost as toxic as Trump himself.
One Person, No Vote should be sent to the offices of every politician in Congress, and every state legislature to remind them and warn them of the breadth of how much damage this programs and crooked politicians have already done. Everything you need to arm yourself and others against losing your Constitutionally protected right is in the book. Read it, read it again, then take action.
February 16, 2022
Every American sho has a shred of interest in a true Democracy, must read this book.
June 11, 2019
To me, voting is practically a sacred act, a chance for the individual to tell their representatives whether they are doing a good job or not. Despite the importance of voting in any democracy, let alone ours, many states in the country have been restricting access to the ballot box. While this was something I had heard about in the past, it wasn't until I read this book that I realized just how insidious and un-American it truly was. What we are seeing today in GOP-dominated state legislatures across the country is nothing less than a concerted, multi-pronged strategy of voter suppression designed to maintain the veneer of democracy while keeping old-fashioned Jim Crow restrictions on voting rights in place. In some ways, the problems we see in our democracy today stem from the modern voter suppression we see today.
Ms. Anderson starts this book by tracing the history of disfranchisement from the Reconstruction to the present day, showing how it was specifically designed to stunt the growth of African-Americans' political power. From there, she examines just how onerous voter ID laws, voter roll purges, and rigged election rules (gerrymandering, closed voting centers, shuttered registration locations, criminalized voter registration drives, etc.) are too our democracy. Quite literally, I was so angry at how brazen GOP voter suppression has become that I wanted to punch something. In fact, I challenge any patriotic American to read this book and not get upset. Indeed, I now consider voter suppression to be the greatest existential crisis our democracy currently faces. So long as these laws are in place, our democracy will continue to be flawed and will soon slip into apartheid status.
This is a very easy book to read. It is only about 160 narrative pages, with about 100 pages of citations. It is well researched and impeccably written to be as clear to understand as anything. I wasn't a big fan of her last chapter about the resistance to voter suppression as demonstrated in the 2017 Alabama special election between Roy Moore and Doug Jones. I think I would have liked more of an examination of the different groups fighting against voter suppression and what exactly they are doing. The special election was too specific. Still, I think this book is essential reading for all Americans. You owe it to yourself and your country to read this book before the 2020 election.
Ms. Anderson starts this book by tracing the history of disfranchisement from the Reconstruction to the present day, showing how it was specifically designed to stunt the growth of African-Americans' political power. From there, she examines just how onerous voter ID laws, voter roll purges, and rigged election rules (gerrymandering, closed voting centers, shuttered registration locations, criminalized voter registration drives, etc.) are too our democracy. Quite literally, I was so angry at how brazen GOP voter suppression has become that I wanted to punch something. In fact, I challenge any patriotic American to read this book and not get upset. Indeed, I now consider voter suppression to be the greatest existential crisis our democracy currently faces. So long as these laws are in place, our democracy will continue to be flawed and will soon slip into apartheid status.
This is a very easy book to read. It is only about 160 narrative pages, with about 100 pages of citations. It is well researched and impeccably written to be as clear to understand as anything. I wasn't a big fan of her last chapter about the resistance to voter suppression as demonstrated in the 2017 Alabama special election between Roy Moore and Doug Jones. I think I would have liked more of an examination of the different groups fighting against voter suppression and what exactly they are doing. The special election was too specific. Still, I think this book is essential reading for all Americans. You owe it to yourself and your country to read this book before the 2020 election.
October 9, 2020
This book is so important, and so detailed, and so depressing.
5 stars for important information
2 stars for being so dense
I love Carol Anderson, but this book (and I can’t believe I’m saying this, because I usually prefer factual books ) has too much detail. Too much detail, not enough flow. I had a tough time getting through it.
In the first chapter alone, there’s an entire textbook’s worth of information packed into those 40+ pages. It’s exhausting and demoralizing reading about all the ways white people have prevented black people from voting. This chapter covers from 1890 to 2017. That’s a lot of ground to cover in just one chapter!
It's accessible in the sense that you don't need a law degree to understand her points, but it's not readable. All of the facts are packed in very densely, I often lost my place or forgot which state I was reading about or which particular atrocity we were on. I'm just not in the right frame of mind to focus so hard right now, so I know I missed a lot.
5 stars for important information
2 stars for being so dense
I love Carol Anderson, but this book (and I can’t believe I’m saying this, because I usually prefer factual books ) has too much detail. Too much detail, not enough flow. I had a tough time getting through it.
In the first chapter alone, there’s an entire textbook’s worth of information packed into those 40+ pages. It’s exhausting and demoralizing reading about all the ways white people have prevented black people from voting. This chapter covers from 1890 to 2017. That’s a lot of ground to cover in just one chapter!
During the 2017 special congressional election in an Atlanta suburb, for example, the Christian Science Monitor asked, “What’s behind fewer African-American voters at the polls?” Polling expert Nate Silver was puzzled; the 14 percent drop-off in the number of blacks voting had been even greater than expected.
It’s puzzling only if you don’t understand how the various methods of voter suppression actually work.
It's accessible in the sense that you don't need a law degree to understand her points, but it's not readable. All of the facts are packed in very densely, I often lost my place or forgot which state I was reading about or which particular atrocity we were on. I'm just not in the right frame of mind to focus so hard right now, so I know I missed a lot.
October 12, 2018
Prof. Anderson is really one of the most lucid and timely voices in contemporary America. This is not some bumbling self-referential and epistemologically closed off to a broad audience academic tome. This, despite the fact that each argument is clear, factual, and well documented. This is not some complicated tripping over itself, equivocal hyper-qualified narrative. It is a clear mirror to the political landscape of contemporary America. And it shows the ugliness of it all, and the courage and determination that can abate the dirtiness.
Prof. Anderson is essential reading for contemporary americans that think and want to read people who allow them to think clearer.
Prof. Anderson is essential reading for contemporary americans that think and want to read people who allow them to think clearer.
September 12, 2018
The author did an amazing job highlighting the voter oppression that has occurred in our Democracy since 1865 until the present. Every person that is of voting age needs to read this book and then register to vote if they aren't already. There are many hard lessons from the past to learn from in this book, but the point is that we learn from them and not repeat them.
December 26, 2018
Democrats tend to act as though the greatest harm that results from all the recent monkeying around with voter registration and election mechanics is that the Republican Party gains an unfair advantage. That's true, of course, as far as it goes. But what is often lost in the debate about voter suppression, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws is that they disproportionately disenfranchise African-Americans and other people of color. The reality is that these widely employed Republican tactics are reminiscent of the Jim Crow laws of the 19th and 20th centuries. And that's the underlying theme of Professor Carol Anderson's trenchant new book, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy.
"The central issue of racial justice in our time: the right to vote"
News reports about voter suppression, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws often give the impression that only a handful of states are affected. This is absolutely untrue. One article may focus on events in North Carolina, another on Wisconsin or Texas. But the pattern is pervasive. "In 2017," Anderson notes, quoting an article by Ari Berman in The Nation, "'99 bills to limit access to the ballot have been introduced in 31 states . . . and more states have enacted new voting restrictions in 2017 than in 2016 and 2015 combined.'"
These tactics indisputably represent a nationwide Republican strategy designed to mitigate the effects of their party's growing demographic disadvantage as people of color steadily approach a majority of the nation's population. And the impact of these tactics is substantial. Professor Anderson cites studies that show how lowered turnout in African-American and Latino communities undoubtedly played a part in Donald Trump's election in 2016.
How Republicans steal elections today: voter suppression, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws
In One Person, No Vote, Anderson briefly surveys the history of voting rights in America. However, unlike many other treatments of the subject, she explains exactly how the laws and practices that constituted Jim Crow resulted in dramatically limiting African-American voter participation. Of course, Jim Crow was avowedly, belligerently racist. The poll tax, "literacy" tests, the white primary, and other tactics were explicitly designed to keep black people from voting.
Today, by analogy, we have voter suppression, gerrymandering, voter ID laws, voter roll purges, limiting access to polling places, denying felons the right to vote, and other nefarious tactics. These techniques are not overtly racist. But the effect is similar—and so too, all too often, is the motivation. The upshot is that people of color aren't the only ones to suffer. All of us Americans are paying the price, as we watch the integrity of our democratic system gradually slip into the mists of history.
Naturally, this pattern is not solely the doing of the institutional Republican Party. The courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have played a crucial role as well, most egregiously in undermining the Voting Rights Act. So-called "conservative" judges defer to states' rights and the Founding Fathers' alleged intentions when it is convenient for them to do so. (If these "conservatives" are conserving anything, it's not democracy.)
"North Carolina is no longer a fully functioning democracy"
"In 2016," Anderson writes, "the Economist Intelligence Unit, which had evaluated 167 nations on sixty different indicators, reported that the United States had slipped into the category of a 'flawed democracy' . . . Similarly, the Electoral Integrity Project . . . was stunned to find that when it applied [the same] calculations in the United States it had in Egypt, Yemen, and Sudan, North Carolina was 'no longer considered to be a fully functioning democracy.' Indeed, if it were an independent nation, the state would rank somewhere between Iran and Venezuela."
One major theme is missing from this book
By focusing on voter suppression, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws, Professor Anderson avoids an equally consequential flaw in American democracy: the rural-urban split built into the Constitution. Each state, no matter how small its population, seats two United States Senators, thus conferring a huge advantage on small, predominantly rural states. And the Electoral College reinforces that advantage by enabling presidential candidates to win election even if they fail to capture a majority of the votes cast.
In a seminar I attended recently sponsored by the New York Times, political scientist Norman Ornstein of the conservative think tank, American Enterprise Institute, revealed that by 2040, 70 percent of the American population will live in 15 states. Thus, 30 percent of the people will elect 70 percent of the Senate. The population ratio of the biggest to the smallest state is 70:1 today, he noted. Does this sound like democracy to you? It doesn't to me.
About the author
Professor Carol Anderson chairs the African-American Studies department at Emory University. She is the author of White Rage (2016), a New York Times bestseller that explores how the legacy of structural racism has led to white anger and resentment. The book was widely read, and widely praised, for its contribution to the debate about the dynamics of the 2016 Presidential election.
"The central issue of racial justice in our time: the right to vote"
News reports about voter suppression, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws often give the impression that only a handful of states are affected. This is absolutely untrue. One article may focus on events in North Carolina, another on Wisconsin or Texas. But the pattern is pervasive. "In 2017," Anderson notes, quoting an article by Ari Berman in The Nation, "'99 bills to limit access to the ballot have been introduced in 31 states . . . and more states have enacted new voting restrictions in 2017 than in 2016 and 2015 combined.'"
These tactics indisputably represent a nationwide Republican strategy designed to mitigate the effects of their party's growing demographic disadvantage as people of color steadily approach a majority of the nation's population. And the impact of these tactics is substantial. Professor Anderson cites studies that show how lowered turnout in African-American and Latino communities undoubtedly played a part in Donald Trump's election in 2016.
How Republicans steal elections today: voter suppression, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws
In One Person, No Vote, Anderson briefly surveys the history of voting rights in America. However, unlike many other treatments of the subject, she explains exactly how the laws and practices that constituted Jim Crow resulted in dramatically limiting African-American voter participation. Of course, Jim Crow was avowedly, belligerently racist. The poll tax, "literacy" tests, the white primary, and other tactics were explicitly designed to keep black people from voting.
Today, by analogy, we have voter suppression, gerrymandering, voter ID laws, voter roll purges, limiting access to polling places, denying felons the right to vote, and other nefarious tactics. These techniques are not overtly racist. But the effect is similar—and so too, all too often, is the motivation. The upshot is that people of color aren't the only ones to suffer. All of us Americans are paying the price, as we watch the integrity of our democratic system gradually slip into the mists of history.
Naturally, this pattern is not solely the doing of the institutional Republican Party. The courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have played a crucial role as well, most egregiously in undermining the Voting Rights Act. So-called "conservative" judges defer to states' rights and the Founding Fathers' alleged intentions when it is convenient for them to do so. (If these "conservatives" are conserving anything, it's not democracy.)
"North Carolina is no longer a fully functioning democracy"
"In 2016," Anderson writes, "the Economist Intelligence Unit, which had evaluated 167 nations on sixty different indicators, reported that the United States had slipped into the category of a 'flawed democracy' . . . Similarly, the Electoral Integrity Project . . . was stunned to find that when it applied [the same] calculations in the United States it had in Egypt, Yemen, and Sudan, North Carolina was 'no longer considered to be a fully functioning democracy.' Indeed, if it were an independent nation, the state would rank somewhere between Iran and Venezuela."
One major theme is missing from this book
By focusing on voter suppression, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws, Professor Anderson avoids an equally consequential flaw in American democracy: the rural-urban split built into the Constitution. Each state, no matter how small its population, seats two United States Senators, thus conferring a huge advantage on small, predominantly rural states. And the Electoral College reinforces that advantage by enabling presidential candidates to win election even if they fail to capture a majority of the votes cast.
In a seminar I attended recently sponsored by the New York Times, political scientist Norman Ornstein of the conservative think tank, American Enterprise Institute, revealed that by 2040, 70 percent of the American population will live in 15 states. Thus, 30 percent of the people will elect 70 percent of the Senate. The population ratio of the biggest to the smallest state is 70:1 today, he noted. Does this sound like democracy to you? It doesn't to me.
About the author
Professor Carol Anderson chairs the African-American Studies department at Emory University. She is the author of White Rage (2016), a New York Times bestseller that explores how the legacy of structural racism has led to white anger and resentment. The book was widely read, and widely praised, for its contribution to the debate about the dynamics of the 2016 Presidential election.
May 6, 2019
The time indicated by the reading dates is not an indictment in the merits of this book. I had it in currently reading list for so long because I kept getting an ebook from the library then time would expire and then I’d have to wait my turn to borrow again.
But, Carol Anderson has done it again. She follows up the brilliant award winning White Rage, with the equally brilliant One Person No Vote! Here she gives us a behind the scenes peek at the GOP voter suppression tactics that are currently being deployed.
The guile used is often fascinating to view, once you have the background that gives you a deeper understanding. On the surface to request that everyone have a picture ID to vote doesn’t seem unreasonable, until you couple that request to what documents are acceptable and where one must go, how much must one pay, etc. When you have all the couplings it’s easy to see the train of discrimination and targeted voter suppression!
“was brutally clear: “I don’t want everybody to vote.” The Republican Party’s “leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” 26 That is to say, the GOP learned that voter suppression applied ruthlessly and relentlessly could deliver victory.”
An abundance of notes are here giving verity to the well researched effort that Ms, Anderson brings to this book. With election season upon us, this book serves as an eye opener to those who are seeking clarity. As Senator Dick Durbin states in the foreword:
“As Carol Anderson makes clear in One Person, No Vote, the right to vote is under even greater assault today. For the sake of those who fought and died for it, it is up to all of us to insist that this most basic American right be protected. Reading this well-crafted book will arm you with the facts.” So indeed be armed!
But, Carol Anderson has done it again. She follows up the brilliant award winning White Rage, with the equally brilliant One Person No Vote! Here she gives us a behind the scenes peek at the GOP voter suppression tactics that are currently being deployed.
The guile used is often fascinating to view, once you have the background that gives you a deeper understanding. On the surface to request that everyone have a picture ID to vote doesn’t seem unreasonable, until you couple that request to what documents are acceptable and where one must go, how much must one pay, etc. When you have all the couplings it’s easy to see the train of discrimination and targeted voter suppression!
“was brutally clear: “I don’t want everybody to vote.” The Republican Party’s “leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” 26 That is to say, the GOP learned that voter suppression applied ruthlessly and relentlessly could deliver victory.”
An abundance of notes are here giving verity to the well researched effort that Ms, Anderson brings to this book. With election season upon us, this book serves as an eye opener to those who are seeking clarity. As Senator Dick Durbin states in the foreword:
“As Carol Anderson makes clear in One Person, No Vote, the right to vote is under even greater assault today. For the sake of those who fought and died for it, it is up to all of us to insist that this most basic American right be protected. Reading this well-crafted book will arm you with the facts.” So indeed be armed!
December 5, 2025
I think this book has a very succinct argument and clear data. Anderson takes essentially for granted the idea that more voters = better democracy, which I think was a smart choice on her part. Don't even open the door for the opposite argument. She has myriad historical data, test cases, and a background focus on Trump/the shitshow that was 2016 (this book is from 2018) and how voter suppression impacted those elections. My main criticism with her work is that the book as a whole felt disjointed to me. The nature of using test court cases and example citites as the basis of an argument is that the national context, and the way those test sites relate to each other, can be obscured. I would have loved more federal statistics, in addition to the state-specific ones. That said, I'll take this book as a kick in the ass to get myself to sort out absentee voting from the UK.
April 24, 2024
“the point was to make the outcome of elections a forgone conclusion; to have the winner decided before the first vote was ever cast. the question, therefore, was never how do we open up this democracy and make it as vibrant, responsive, and inclusive as we can, but rather, how do we maximize the frustration of millions of citizens to minimize their participation in the electoral process? how do we let candidates identify and choose their voters instead of the other way around? how do we make all this look legitimate?”
felt like a fitting read since an election year is upon us. this book and the truths it reveals is truly maddening, and i found the information completely and utterly essential.
i feel that if more americans were to read this book, or even read a few of the articles she references, and they saw the lengths that republicans go to (and have for decades) in order to suppress their vote, they would be more inclined to participate in elections.
they try to make you think your vote is unimportant because it! is! important! they know the power that we hold, so it’s about time that we all saw it ourselves.
felt like a fitting read since an election year is upon us. this book and the truths it reveals is truly maddening, and i found the information completely and utterly essential.
i feel that if more americans were to read this book, or even read a few of the articles she references, and they saw the lengths that republicans go to (and have for decades) in order to suppress their vote, they would be more inclined to participate in elections.
they try to make you think your vote is unimportant because it! is! important! they know the power that we hold, so it’s about time that we all saw it ourselves.
June 7, 2021
This book sheds a much-needed light on the all-too-pervasive practice of racially targeted voter suppression from Reconstruction to the present day, with deep dives into the mechanics and consequences of common repressive tactics. I confess I was woefully ignorant of the severity of this issue; the statistics Anderson shares are absolutely infuriating in their magnitude and calculated racist intent. It’s a bit of a slow read, but an incredibly important one.
March 5, 2024
Just further proof that this country, its states, and their municipalities are all run by the most sinister people alive!!! ALSO further proof that anyone who doesn't think systemic racism exists is ignorant at best and evil at worst!
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