Tova Andrea Wang examines the history of how U.S. election reforms
have been manipulated for partisan advantage and establishes a new
framework for analyzing current laws and policies. The tactics that
have been employed to suppress voting in recent elections are not
novel, she finds, but rather build upon the strategies used by a
variety of actors going back nearly a century and a half. This
continuity, along with the shift to a Republican domination of voter
suppression efforts for the past fifty years, should inform what we
think about reform policy today.
Wang argues that
activities that suppress voting are almost always illegitimate, while
reforms that increase participation are nearly always legitimate. In
short, use and abuse of election laws and policies to suppress votes
has obvious detrimental impacts on democracy itself. Such activities
are also harmful because of their direct impacts on actual election
outcomes. Wang regards as beneficial any legal effort to increase the
number of Americans involved in the electoral system. This includes
efforts that are focused on improving voter turnout among certain
populations typically regarded as supporting one party, as long as
the methods and means for boosting participation are open to all.
Wang identifies and describes a number of specific legitimate and
positive reforms that will increase voter turnout.
