The Way We Vote : The Local Dimension of American Suffrage

Alec C. Ewald

ISBN 10: 0826516548 / ISBN 13: 9780826516541

Published by Univ Of Chicago Press Behalf Of Vanderbilt Univ. P Jul 2009, 2009

About this Item

Neuware - To a degree unique among democracies, the United States has always placed responsibility for running national elections in the hands of county, city, and town officials. The Way We Vote explores the causes and consequences of America's localized voting system, explaining its historical development and its impact on American popular sovereignty and democratic equality. The book shows that local electoral variation has endured through dramatic changes in American political and constitutional structure, and that such variation is the product of a clear, repeated developmental pattern, not simple neglect or public ignorance. Legal materials, statutes and Congressional debates, state constitutional-convention proceedings, and the records of contested Congressional elections illuminate a long record of federal and state intervention in American electoral mechanics. Lawmakers have always understood that a certain level of disorder characterizes U.S. national elections, and have responded by exercising their authority over suffrage practices--but only in limited ways, effectively helping to construct our triply-governed electoral system.

Seller Inventory # 9780826516541

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Way We Vote : The Local Dimension of American Suffrage
• Publisher: Univ Of Chicago Press Behalf Of Vanderbilt Univ. P Jul 2009
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826516548
• ISBN 13: 9780826516541
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 14D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 14 millimeters depth
• Weight: 359 grams

About this title

Synopsis

To a degree unique among democracies, the United States has always placed responsibility for running national elections in the hands of county, city, and town officials. The Way We Vote explores the causes and consequences of America's localized voting system, explaining its historical development and its impact on American popular sovereignty and democratic equality.

The book shows that local electoral variation has endured through dramatic changes in American political and constitutional structure, and that such variation is the product of a clear, repeated developmental pattern, not simple neglect or public ignorance. Legal materials, statutes and Congressional debates, state constitutional-convention proceedings, and the records of contested Congressional elections illuminate a long record of federal and state intervention in American electoral mechanics. Lawmakers have always understood that a certain level of disorder characterizes U.S. national elections, and have responded by exercising their authority over suffrage practices--but only in limited ways, effectively helping to construct our triply-governed electoral system.

About the Author

Alec C. Ewald is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Vermont.