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

The updated edition of Steal This Vote —a rollicking history of US voter suppression and fraud from Jacksonian democracy to Citizens United and beyond. In Down for the Count , award-winning journalist Andrew Gumbel explores the tawdry history of elections in the United States. From Jim Crow to Tammany Hall to the Bush v. Gore Florida recount, it is a chronicle of votes bought, stolen, suppressed, lost, miscounted, thrown into rivers, and litigated up to the Supreme Court. Gumbel then uses this history to explain why America is now experiencing the biggest backslide in voting rights in more than a century. First published in 2005 as Steal This Vote , this thoroughly revised and updated edition reveals why America faces so much trouble running clean, transparent elections. And it demonstrates how the partisan battles now raging over voter IDs, campaign spending, and minority voting rights fit into a long, largely unspoken tradition of hostility to the very notion of representative democracy. Interviewing Democrats, Republicans, and a range of voting rights activists, Gumbel offers an engaging and accessible analysis of how our democratic integrity is so often corrupted by racism, money, and power. In an age of high-stakes electoral combat, billionaire-backed candidacies, and bottom-of-the-barrel campaigning, this book is more important than ever. “In a riveting and frightening account, Gumbel . . . traces election fraud in America from the 18th century to the present . . . [the issues he] so winningly addresses are crucial to the future of democracy.” — Publishers Weekly, on Steal This Vote "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, this thoroughly revised edition lifts the lid off the largely undiscussed corruption at the core of our democracy-elections so poorly regulated and administered they fall short of standards the United States routinely imposes on emerging democracies. The problem has only grown worse in the last decade, as campaign spending has gone hog wild, partisan battles rage over voter ID, and a key provision of the Voting Rights Act has been shredded. As award-winning journalist Andrew Gumbel shows, we need proper oversight and regulation of elections, reliable voting machines, and a keener understanding of where private interests infringe on the public good. Now that Citizens United, super PACs, and the Koch brothers have turned the electoral process into an increasingly squalid lottery for billionaires, there is no better time for Gumbel's revision of his acclaimed book"-- Provided by publisher AUTHOR’S NOTE 10 INTRODUCTION:“EVERYTHING IS A VIOLATION” 12 1 THE ANTIDEMOCRATIC TRADITION AND THE NEW RIGHT 30 2 SLAVERY AND THE SYSTEM 46 3 PATRONAGE, LIQUOR, AND GRAFT:THE ASCENT Of MACHINE POLITICS 58 4 THE THEFT Of THE CENTURY 72 5 THE 1896 WATERSHED AND THE PARADOX Of REFORM 84 6 THE LONG AGONY Of THE DISENFRANCHISED SOUTH 100 7 CHICAGO: THE OTHER KIND OF MOB RULE 118 8 THE fALLACY Of THE TECHNOLOGICAL FIX 132 9 DEMOCRACY’S FRANGIBLE CONNECTIONS: FLORIDA 2000 150 10 MIRACLE CURE 170 11 ELECTION 2004: THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME 188 12 THE 3 PERCENT SOLUTION 200 13 POPE AND ABBOTT: THE NEW RELIGION Of BUYING AND SUPPRESSING VOTES 216 14 THE SUPER-RICH AND THE DEMOCRATIC FUTURE 234 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 248 NOTES 250 INDEX 288 Introduction : "everything is a violation" The antidemocratic tradition and the new right Slavery and the system Patronage, liquor, and graft : the ascent of machine politics The theft of the century The 1896 watershed and the paradox of reform The long agony of the disenfranchised South Chicago : the other kind of mob rule The fallacy of the technological fix Democracy's frangible connections : Florida 2000 Miracle cure Election 2004 : the shape of things to come The 3 percent solution Pope and Abbott : the new religion of buying and suppressing votes The super-rich and the democratic future.