An answer to the assault on voting rights—crucial reading in
advance of the 2020 presidential election
The Voting Rights
Act of 1965 is considered one of the most effective pieces of
legislation the United States has ever passed. It enfranchised
hundreds of thousands of voters, particularly in the American South,
and drew attention to the problem of voter suppression. Yet in recent
years there has been a continuous assault on access 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, groups that historically vote for
the Democratic Party.
Uncounted
examines the phenomenon of disenfranchisement through the lens of
history, race, law, and the democratic process. Gilda R. Daniels, who
served as Deputy Chief in the United States Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division and more than two decades of voting rights
experience, argues that voter suppression works in cycles, constantly
adapting and finding new ways to hinder access for an exponentially
growing minority population. She warns that a premeditated strategy
of restrictive laws and deceptive practices has taken root and is
eroding the very basis of American democracy—the right to vote!