Down For The Count: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America

Description

This rollicking history of American democracy demonstrates that electoral fraud is as American as apple pie. 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 (Nation Books), this thoroughly revised edition lifts the lid off the largely undiscussed corruption at the core of American Political History.

Andrew Gumbel is a British-born journalist who has worked as an award-winning investigative reporter, a political columnist, and a foreign correspondent for publications including The Guardian, The Independent, Los Angeles Times, The Nation and The Atlantic. He is the author of several books, including Oklahoma City: What The Investigation Missed And Why It Still Matters. He lives in Santa Monica.

Praise for Down for the Count: "The right to vote is not only the cornerstone of American democracy; it is also the right upon which all our other rights depend. Down for the Count offers an eye-opening account of this country's long history of meddling and voter suppression, and it establishes vital, disturbing connections between the rise of Jim Crow and the most recent attacks on voting integrity." -Ben Jealous, former president and CEO of the NAACP "In this comprehensive assessment of voting in the United States, Gumbel explores in depth both the historical aspects and the current battles over elections and voting procedures-and their implications locally, nationally, and internationally. Gumbel illuminates, with intelligence and great perception, the structural flaws in the American election system. While the systemic dysfunction is dismal and pervasive, Gumbel also offers a list of solutions. Provocative and challenging, this book does not tell a pretty story, but it is a story essential to all of us who treasure our democracy." -Orville Vernon Burton, author of The Age of Lincoln "It's a free country, as the saying goes, but a modern, well-functioning, mature democracy? Not even close. In this fast-paced ride through the seamy past and alarming present of America's ramshackle, corruptible electoral machinery, Gumbel tells a tale of American exceptionalism with a vengeance." -Hendrik Hertzberg, staff writer at the New Yorker