The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (review)

Abstract

In the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives on January 6, 2001, Congress certified the Electoral College vote, granting the presidency to George W. Bush, the first person to attain that office without winning the popular vote since Benjamin Harrison in 1888. Members of the congressional black caucus tried in vain to stop the counting of Florida's electoral votes, citing the disfranchisement of some African American voters in that state owing to irregularities in voter registration or to intimidation. Outside the Capitol, some protesters carried signs reading "Restore Democracy!" Readers of Alexander Keyssar's new book, the first scholarly study of U.S. voting rights since 1918, have cause to suggest that these signs might more accurately have read "Create Democracy!"