Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America

” … In recent years there has been a continuous assault to the ballot box in the form of stricter voter ID requirements, meritless claims of rigged elections, and baseless accusations of voter fraud. In the past these efforts were aimed at eliminating African American voters from the rolls, and today, new laws seek to eliminate voters of color, the poor, and the elderly.”

—Gilda Daniels

Voter ID laws, voter purges, the disenfranchisement of felons, gerrymandering, fake ads, intimidation campaigns—such are the tools of modern voter suppression. In this guide to the practice and its effects, law professor and Litigation Director of Advancement Project, Gilda Daniels, describes how it works and provides a road map and a call to action for participants in the fight to vote. Daniels, the former deputy chief in the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department draws clear lines connecting today’s attacks on voters with the more blatantly violent suppression tactics of the past, identifying a historical cycle of hard-won expansions followed by pushbacks from opponents.

In concise chapters focused on specific suppression tactics, she offers strategies for moving the pendulum toward access. The book also covers key federal policy ­choices and court cases that have impacted voting rights and, lest readers lose sight of the impact of voter suppression on real people, draws on individual experiences, including those of Daniels’ own grandmother —whose lives span the decades from Jim Crow-era fights for voting rights to the need to defend them in the present—to illuminate the issue’s urgency.

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Reviews are in!

“Gilda R. Daniels has written the definitive book on fighting against voter suppression and the erosion of our democracy. This month’s #RequiredReading.”—Ms. Magazine

“An answer to the assault on voting rights—crucial reading in advance of the 2020 presidential election.”—Amazon Books

“This work sounds an alarm for any and all readers interested in reversing the damage and danger of the nondemocratic dynamic threatening truth, justice, and the fight to vote.”—Library Journal

“This book is a valuable resource for all participants in civic life.”—Booklist