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Tova Andrea Wang is a nationally known expert on election reform and political participation in the United States and internationally. She is Senior Democracy Fellow at Demos, a Fellow at The Century Foundation, and a consultant to organizations working to improve democracy around the world, such as the National Democratic Institute and The Carter Center. She is the author of the 2012 book The Politics of Voter Suppression: Defending and Expanding Americans’ Right to Vote (Cornell University Press). (More HERE)

You can read about that book AT THIS LINK.

Recently, she released another publication 2012 Election Lessons Learned: How Voters Stood Up Against Suppression, ID, and Intimidation which you can download AT THIS LINK.

Excerpt:


The right to vote is just that – a fundamental right which is the cornerstone of American democracy. In the 2012 election, that sacred value was challenged in a way we have not seen in a couple of generations, perhaps since the civil and voting rights movements of the 1960s. Some powerful people tried to deny this right; legislatures in many states decided that the freedom to vote should be restricted, and they erected many unnecessary and discriminatory barriers to registration and voting.  

The measures taken were so blatant and widespread that they served to energize coalitions of citizens to fight for voting rights harder than ever, and made many voters more determined to vote and have their vote count. The U.S. Department of Justice was compelled to intervene through its powers under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, because the laws enacted in several covered states were clearly discriminatory in purpose and/or effect. State and federal courts also struck down or delayed many of the worst of these laws. And where identification laws did come into effect, some were made more flexible and less of a burden on voters after having gone through Department of Justice and court review. 

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE HERE.