In this extremely timely book, Tova Wang provides a detailed overview of partisan voter-suppression efforts from the middle of the nineteenth century up to the dramatic increase in restrictive voter requirements implemented or considered in 2011–12. Along the way, Wang argues that as a general rule, election procedures and reforms should encourage and increase voter participation as long as such practices do not undermine other values, such as election integrity. She presents this “principle of voter inclusion” as a useful guide for evaluating contemporary and historical election reforms and as “a means of restoring the concept of voting as a right” (p. 14). Written in an accessible style for a broad audience, this book provides a number of valuable contributions to the ongoing debate about election reform.

The broad historical perspective in this book highlights the ways in which suppression efforts have been adapted to accommodate new legal and demographic realities over the years, but also details an incredible number of uncannily direct historical parallels to recent partisan legislative and administrative efforts at disenfranchisement. These parallels hold true for both the specific content of restrictive reform efforts and the rhetoric used to justify and defend such reforms. To take just two examples from the late 1800s, Wang discusses the introduction of proof-of-citizenship requirements by Republicans in many states, argued to be necessary to combat voter fraud, and the purging of Republican voters from registration lists by Democratic officials in Florida (a truly historical irony in light of the Florida registration purges in the 2000s). A recurrent theme is that the threat of voter fraud has nearly always been a primary justification for the necessity of these restrictive policies and practices. The author is careful to stress that contemporary concerns about voter fraud, especially in-person voter impersonation, are largely unfounded, but additionally reports that historical research suggests that even in earlier periods in which election fraud was significantly more common, accusations of fraud were consistently exaggerated by partisans to a great degree.

Wang begins by documenting the multifaceted approaches to voter suppression engaged in by both Republicans and Democrats, but especially southern Democrats, in the century preceding the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She appropriately takes a wide view on suppression efforts, ranging from onerous registration requirements, literacy tests, and poll taxes to felon disenfranchisement and disinformation. Following the passage of both the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, the resulting political realignment of the South led Republicans to adopt racially discriminatory suppression strategies similar to those that had been central to the long-standing Democratic domination of the South. While southern Democrats continued to engage in some forms of discriminatory suppression in the 1960 and 1970s, Wang argues that since the 1960s, the Republican Party has been the primary force behind practices and policies intended to disenfranchise or reduce turnout among its political opponents.

The author details the increasing sophistication, and nationwide coordination, of Republican voter caging efforts, the origins of which she traces to the 1964 election. She also focuses on two pieces of reform legislation, the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA, the “motor voter” law) and the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), both of which illustrate the manner in which well-intentioned reforms can be implemented in the service of partisan interests. In the case of the NVRA, Republican politicians attacked the bill as an invitation to fraud. After its passage, seven states, all with Republican governors, initially refused to implement the law. In the years following passage, more Republicans than Democrats were registered through the NVRA, likely due to the fact that as increasing numbers of voters were registering at Motor Vehicle Departments, the section of the law requiring registration opportunities at public assistance agencies was neglected and unenforced.

Similarly, Wang details the manner in which HAVA, drafted in the wake of the 2000 election debacle, was shaped by congressional Republicans to address voter fraud, which was not a significant issue within the highly problematic 2000 election. In addition, some provisions of the law were subsequently used to disenfranchise voters, contrary to the overall intent of the legislation. A weak version of an ID requirement contained in HAVA has led to the passage of significantly more stringent ID requirements in a majority of states. These bills have been supported by Republicans and have passed nearly universally along partisan lines. The passage of these bills increased dramatically following the 2010 election, supported by newly elected Republican majorities and supermajorities. Further, a provision of HAVA required that voters not appearing on registration lists be given a provisional ballot. Unfortunately, the law does not instruct states as to how such ballots should be counted, and in response, many partisan election officials have decided that these votes should be tossed aside.

Overall, these outcomes serve as a cautionary tale for advocates of election reform regarding the need to be sensitive to unintended consequences and attentive to the manner in which implementation can be enacted to serve partisan ends.

Wang closes with an assessment of the electoral consequences of voter-suppression efforts and suggestions for a wide range of reforms to the registration and voting process. In her advocacy of these specific reforms and evaluation of past reforms, she argues that “reforms that increase participation are nearly always legitimate, while activities that suppress voting are almost never legitimate” (p. xiv). She is realistic in her assessment that parties are most likely to push for reforms that they find beneficial, and she even details which reforms would disproportionately benefit each party. As long as reforms increase voter participation and access, Wang does not view partisan motivations for supporting such reforms as problematic.

While likely beyond the intended scope of, and audience for, this book, the author's research has great potential to contribute to theoretical perspectives on the conditions under which parties tend to engage in voter-suppression efforts. For example, Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward's work (Why Americans Still Don't Vote: And Why Politicians Want It That Way, 2000) addresses the structural and strategic constraints that American political parties face in mobilizing lower-income voters that, in some cases, incentivize demobilization and suppression. This book is an important contribution to the growing body of research focused specifically on voter suppression, which, unfortunately, is such an enduring and occasionally decisive feature of the American political landscape.

It is unclear whether problems reported during the 2012 elections, such as extremely long lines in particular states, will translate into sufficient public pressure for reform. Ironically, the decisive election of President Barack Obama has likely only reduced the perceived urgency of reform for the public at large, while fueling conspiratorial perceptions of voter fraud among some conservatives. Further, in the short term, it seems unlikely that desirable reforms could survive the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Looking forward, the restrictive voter legislation passed in the years preceding the 2012 election remain in effect, as do many of the long-standing problems of misallocation of voting machines and poll workers and their potential impact on election outcomes. Also of concern are the broader negative individual and civic impacts of voter disenfranchisement, issues repeatedly emphasized by Wang. Given the importance of these debates in the years to come, The Politics of Voter Suppression is a serious and useful contribution to this discussion.