Summary Of Richard Hasen's The Voting Wars?

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In his book, The Voting Wars, Richard Hasen argues that parties involved in election reform issues generally fall into one of two groups: one focused on removing any potential fraudulent votes, and the other focused on expanding voter access so as to not exclude any potential votes. Hasen works to show that most election litigation stems from this dichotomy. With the former camp is usually occupied by conservatives and the latter by progressives (though it really depends on who is winning), Hasen seems to think that the problem is this partisanship in general, and even though statistically he seems to place more blame on Republicans since 2000, Democrats are not spared his accusations. He cites examples of tactics used by both parties in campaigns that range from basic advertisements, to identification laws, to downright polling-place intimidation. But does the amount of actual election litigation and any resulting changes (or lack thereof) match the overall number of charges of fraud? Can Hasen back up his claims? After reading this book, the confidence one may have had in the legitimacy of election litigation (and the voting process as a whole) may certainly be called into question. While some instances of fraud can …show more content…

Previously, Hasen describes Democrats as being the ones who want more people to have access to voting. Republicans, on the other hand, are painted as the ones who want stricter voter registration to preserve the integrity of elections. A problem with our voting system is we cannot be sure of the integrity, as in almost every election, there is some sort of fraud claim. Hasen looks into one of the main problems in our voting system; how we vote. Hasen discusses why different methods of electronic voting are present, what they intended to accomplish by implementing these systems, and the issues associated with

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