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If elections are the lifeblood of democracy, then the United States is a sorely ailing body politic. From ballot stuffing and intimidating voters to suppressing turnout, buying votes, and manipulating returns, Deliver the Vote is an intensive examination of the corrupt underbelly of American politics. Drawing on records of hundreds of elections from the pre-colonial era through the 2004 election, historian Tracy Campbell reveals how a persistent culture of corruption has long thrived in local, state, and national elections. Among the public figures whose stories are central to his chronicle are Boss Tweed, William Randolph Hearst, Huey Long, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush, as well as countless local and state politicians of all parties. Our elections are often held up as the model for the world's budding democracies to emulate. But after two of the most bitterly contested presidential elections in American history, this book shows how our democratic house has never been in proper order. Using a candid appraisal of our history as a guide, Deliver the Vote offers some surprising suggestions for a demoralized electorate to reclaim its democratic birthright.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction: "The Inclination to Injustice"(p. xv)
• Part 1 The Failure of a Democratic Experiment
• Chapter 1 "I Never Saw Such Havock"(p. 3)
• A "Corrupting Influence"
• The Rise of Parties
• "The Pivot on Which Turns the First Wheel"
• "Let Dogs Be Registered!"
• "We Ought to Be the Last People Afraid to Vote"
• Tammany Hall
• "The Embodiment of All That Is Fraudulent"
• Defining the Problem
• Freedom or Slavery
• Chapter 2 The Limits of Popular Sovereignty(p. 31)
• Kansas Dirt
• Federal Complicity
• "What Is Popular Government Worth?"
• Regulating the Election
• 1860
• Chapter 3 "Can You Hold Your State?"(p. 51)
• "Without Restraint or Regulation"
• "You Can Fill Them Up as Well as We Can Here"
• Black Suffrage
• "We Intend to Succeed by Intimidation"
• The Thefts of 1876
• Who Decides?
• The Greatest Danger to Free Government
• Chapter 4 "The Holiest Institution of the American People"(p. 83)
• Self-Preservation
• Shaving Moustaches
• Social Darwinism and Elections
• Challenges
• "Men of the Strictest Integrity"
• Approaching the Gates of the Penitentiary
• Voting in Secret
• "The People Are Demoralized"
• "We Have Taken a City. To God Be the Praise"
• The Agents of Democracy
• Part 2 The Struggle to Reclaim Democracy
• Chapter 5 How to Steal an Election(p. 113)
• "The Political Filth of Louisville"
• "We Were Cheated on Every Side"
• Nothing Short of Revolutionary Tactics
• "All Elections Require Money"
• "The Wagon That Stole Our Rights"
• "Frauds Open and Brazen"
• The Triumph of Democracy
• A City of White People
• "Louisville Is Not a Hardened Sinner"
• Chapter 6 "The Lowest Layer of Corruption"(p. 136)
• Hearst
• "It's Just a Condition Down There"
• "Worse Than Dynamite"
• "Next Time, Be More Careful"
• The Suffrage Issue
• Congressional Remedies
• Less Than a One-in-Eight Chance
• "Accept Defeat Like a Man"
• Chapter 7 The Real Foundations of the Gateway Arch(p. 160)
• The St. Louis Tradition
• Developing the Riverfront
• The Dictator
• Delivering the Vote
• "Voted 'Em Like Soldiers"
• "A Miscarriage of Justice"
• "It Stinks"
• "The Greatest Memorial Since the Eiffel Tower"
• Chapter 8 "Consistency, Thou Art a Jewel"(p. 192)
• Pendergast
• Stealing Second Base
• Outdummied
• The Proper Protection
• Women and the Honest Election League
• EPIC
• Bloody Harlan
• "Sober, Square, and Honest"
• Part 3 The Path to Popular Resignation
• Chapter 9 Uncomfortable Majorities(p. 215)
• "God Almighty, Sears Roebuck, and Gene Talmadge"
• "These are the Same Old Cracker Tactics"
• "We Didn't Steal as Many Counties as You Think"
• The Duke of Duval
• "As Clean an Election As Ever Has Been Held"
• Ballot Box 13
• "Yes, It's True"
• "The Good, the True, and the Beautiful"
• "One Person, One Vote"
• "You Haven't Learned Anything About Voting My Way"
• Chapter 10 "Elections Are Like Cement"(p. 242)
• Legalized Bribery
• "It Was Going to Be All Right"
• "Be Held for Naught"
• "A Sad Day in American Politics"
• Hawaii
• Set in Concrete
• "Substantial Non-Complementary Miscounts"
• The Cold Light of the Next Dawn
• Uncovering the Daley Machine
• Chapter 11 Thieves Who Steal Democracy(p. 268)
• The Freedom Ballot
• Protective Zones
• Plaquemines-"This Is the First Time We've Had an Open Election"
• "To Get 50 Percent of the Vote, You've Got to Buy It"
• Absentee Ballots and Bullets
• "A Successful Flea Market"
• Phantom Voters
• The Paradox of Modern Civic Life
• "Democracy Is Dispensable in Miami"
• Chapter 12 A Hidden Time Bomb(p. 292)
• Suspicious Activity
• Dead Man Running
• "From the Comfort of Your Home"
• Count Till You Win
• Hyper-Technical Reliances
• "Until Voters Get to Speak Again"
• "Widespread Voter Disfranchisement"
• "Count Every Vote"
• Semi-Spontaneous Combustion
• 537 Votes
• Bush v. Gore
• "Our Votes Are Not Sacrosanct"
• Conclusion: "Something Very Personal"(p. 325)
• 2004
• "Have a Nice Day"
• New Machines
• "The Long and Ugly Tradition"
• Reclaiming Democracy
• "Something Very Personal"
• Endnotes(p. 341)
• Selected Bibliography(p. 399)
• Acknowledgments(p. 433)
• Index(p. 439)
• About the Author(p. 453)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Covering much the same territory as Andrew Gumbel's recent Steal This Vote, Campbell highlights the imperfect aspects of American elections, covering such known problems as the undemocratic practices of the urban political machines during their heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But even as late as 1987, according to Barrett, the price of a vote in a Kentucky race could reach $200. He also retells the oft-forgotten story of alleged vote buying for John Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. With the wealth of evidence that Campbell has amassed, there's little doubt that the goal of free and fair elections has not always been met in American history. Nor, as the disputed election of 2000 shows, does this problem seem to be going away. But Campbell (The Politics of Despair: Power and Resistance in the Tobacco Wars) lumps together systemic problems, such as denying women and blacks the right to vote, with illegal transgressions, like vote buying. At the same time, he fails to acknowledge the advances made by American democracy, perhaps because this would weaken his case that the "process itself was deeply corrupted and had been so for over two hundred years." Agent, John W. Wright. (Nov. 8) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

According to Campbell, buying votes, stuffing or destroying ballots, moving polling locations, transposing results, importing illegal voters from other towns or states, and suppressing, disenfranchising, and sometimes killing voters comprises a long, sordid tradition in American political culture. Despite all the changes in the mechanics of voting and the apparent safeguards, how has fraud--flagrant and subtle--persisted, Campbell asks. The answer, so Campbell argues, is a deeply embedded culture within American politics that considers cheating fully justifiable. The author indicates that those contributing to this culture of corruption have not been limited to cigar-chomping party bosses. Precinct captains, poll officials, and police officers were involved, as well as teachers, lawyers, and clergy. Campbell insists that his aim is to use selected examples from various eras and locales to describe how this culture has developed and survived over the years, believing that the solution is to be aware that there is a problem and to confront the truth that election fraud has been a common component in our nation's electoral history. The book's conclusions lead to the realization that election fraud is a crime that usually pays, which will come as no surprise to most readers; but the author's meticulously researched book stands without rivals as the most balanced and comprehensive on the subject. --George Cohen Copyright 2005 Booklist

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Tracy Campbell is Professor of History and Co-Director of the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center at the University of Kentucky in Lexington