MAALL Book to Action

2021 Book to Action Program

In your line up of summer reading, please add One Person, No Vote:  How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson.

The issue of voting rights, voting integrity and voter suppression has been front and center over the past few years.  In One Person, No Vote, Carol Anderson looks at the history of voting and efforts to restrict the ballot since the early years of our democracy.  Then she focuses on the rollbacks of African-American participation in the vote since 2013, after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby v. Holder.  The Shelby ruling allowed states with a history of discrimination against Blacks at the ballot box to change voting requirements without prior approval from the U.S. Department of Justice (eliminating one section of the federal Voting Rights Act).    

Focusing on the aftermath of Shelby, Anderson describes the restrictive voting laws that came into effect at the state level, some as soon as a few hours after the decision came down. This book provides detailed information on the different types of efforts to limit voting, from poll closures to voter ID requirements and more. She also devotes a chapter to activist efforts to counter these restrictive laws. 

Timely and provocative, One Person, One Vote is sure to lead to lively discussion and debate. We look forward to discussing this book with you at the 2021 MAALL Conference.

Information about our connected charity effort will be coming soon. 

MAALL Book to Action Coordinators,

Cindy Bassett and Gail Wechsler