Gilda R. Daniels, "Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression" (NYU Press, 2020)
Are we asleep at the (common)wheel? Civil rights attorney and law professor Gilda R. Daniels insists that contemporary voter ID laws, voter deception, voter purges, and disenfranchisement of felons constitute a crisis of democracy \u2013 one that should remind us of past poll taxes, grandfather clauses, literacy tests, and physical intimidation \u2013 that should spur us to action. Uncounted combines law, history, oral history, and democratic theory to illuminate a 21st century, premediated legal strategy to disenfranchise voters of color.\nIn Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression (NYU Press, 2020),\xa0Daniels establishes the context of 21st-century voter suppression then focuses on the importance of the Voting Rights Act in discouraging voter suppression \u2013 and the negative impact of the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Shelby County v. Holder (2013). She elucidates the types \u2013 and impacts \u2013 of voter deception with attention to possible impacts on the presidential election in 2020. Throughout the work, she connects past and present to demonstrate the radical impact of voter suppression on voting and this is particularly apparent in the chapters on voter purging and felon disenfranchisement.\nThe podcast includes a fascinating discussion of the impact of COVID-19 on voter suppression \u2013 particularly regarding absentee voting. Daniels complements her nuanced analysis of the cycles of voter suppression in America with concrete steps for combatting it urging people to educate, legislate, litigate, and participate.\nThis timely book offers an analysis that is both deep and highly accessible. It is simultaneously a work of scholarship and a practical call to action.\nSusan Liebell\xa0is associate professor of political science at Saint Joseph\u2019s University in Philadelphia. She is the author of Democracy, Intelligent Design, and Evolution: Science for Citizenship (Routledge, 2013).\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law