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A leading Constitutional law scholar explains our electoral system, how it came to be, and how we can change it.
Many Americans today are frustrated, unsettled, or just plain perplexed about the rules governing our democracy and who gets make them. Concern about rigged systems, confusion about the Electoral College, and uncertainty about who's in charge of it all have shaken our faith in elections as a reliable way to peacefully transfer political power in a deeply fractured nation.
In We the Voters, Lori A. Ringhand brings a fresh perspective to these issues. In straightforward and accessible language, she explains how certain questions – who "we the people" are, how they should be represented, and who gets to make the rules governing our elections – have always lurked just beneath the surface of our nation's most contentious fights about how our elections should work.
When there are clear answers to these questions, this book explains them. But its primary purpose is to help readers understand why so many of these questions are genuinely difficult, and how decisions made by past generations both structure and empower our choices today. Using constitutional text, history, and landmark Supreme Court decisions, Ringhand shows how the Constitution often serves less as rigid rule book for our elections and more as a general framework, empowering each generation of Americans to engage for themselves the important questions underlying our electoral system by interrogating what is and isn't working for them.
We the Voters is pragmatic, but also optimistic. In the end, the Constitution leaves the defense of our democracy up to us; it equips us with the tools we need to question, debate, and ultimately change how our system of self-government works. This book urges us to take up that call with vigor.
"Lori Ringhand has produced the rare work that is thorough, accessible, and scholarly. The neophyte and expert alike will benefit from engaging with her marvelous account of how history shapes how we vote and debate voting." —Mark Graber, University of Maryland
"In We the Voters, Lori Ringhand powerfully describes how the Constitution and its history shape the major disputes in American democracy. From the founding to the twenty-first century, Ringhand provides a clear, thoughtful, and fair account of the origins and modern stakes of some of our most difficult election controversies. This account will educate and empower any reader who wishes to work towards a better American democracy." —Atiba Ellis, Case Western Reserve University
"Lori A. Ringhand's illuminating civic history text We the Voters combines constitutional analyses with accessible examinations of American democracy." —Foreword Reviews
"There is no doubt... that We the Voters will be found useful by all those who want to be up on the central legal and legislative fights involving voting rights since the Civil War." —Walter Horn, 3:16 AM
1. Our Democratic Republic
2. Representing the People
3. Electing the President
4. Making the Rules
5. Reconstructing the Republic
6. Protecting the Right to Vote
Conclusion: We the Voters