Down for the count
Subtitle: dirty elections and the rotten history of democracy in America
By: Andrew Gumbel
Edition: Revised and updated edition.
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 293
ISBN-13: 9781620971680
Subjects: Voting-machines; Corrupt practices; Elections; History
Work titles: Steal this vote
Description: "Down for the Count explores in an accessible, engaging style the tawdry continuing history of votes bought, stolen, suppressed, lost, miscounted, thrown into rivers, and litigated up to the Supreme Court in the world's most powerful democracy. First published to great acclaim and controversy in 2005 as Steal this Vote, this thoroughly revised edition lifts the lid off the largely undiscussed corruption at the core of our democracy-elections so poorly regulated and administered they fall short of standards the United States routinely imposes on emerging democracies. The problem has only grown worse in the last decade, as campaign spending has gone hog wild, partisan battles rage over voter ID, and a key provision of the Voting Rights Act has been shredded. As award-winning journalist Andrew Gumbel shows, we need proper oversight and regulation of elections, reliable voting machines, and a keener understanding of where private interests infringe on the public good. Now that Citizens United, super PACs, and the Koch brothers have turned the electoral process into an increasingly squalid lottery for billionaires, there is no better time for Gumbel's revision of his acclaimed book"--
Notes: Revised edition of: Steal this vote. New York : Nation Books, c2005.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : "everything is a violation"; title: The antidemocratic tradition and the new right; title: Slavery and the system; title: Patronage, liquor, and graft : the ascent of machine politics; title: The theft of the century; title: The 1896 watershed and the paradox of reform; title: The long agony of the disenfranchised South; title: Chicago : the other kind of mob rule; title: The fallacy of the technological fix; title: Democracy's frangible connections : Florida 2000; title: Miracle cure; title: Election 2004 : the shape of things to come; title: The 3 percent solution; title: Pope and Abbott : the new religion of buying and suppressing votes; title: The super-rich and the democratic future.