Review by Choice Review
Springer (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz) exhaustively explores turnout at the state level in presidential and nonpresidential years from 1920 (when women first voted) through 2000. She reports the effects of both barriers to voting (e.g., literacy tests and long residency requirements) and reforms designed to facilitate voting (e.g., registration by mail). Springer runs her advanced statistical models for both the South, with its legacy of denying voting rights to minorities, and the rest of the nation. Even after controlling for social and other political factors, she reports that voting qualifications (e.g., poll taxes), registration rules (e.g., registration closing date), and voting procedures (e.g., hours polls are open) still influence turnout. The reforms designed to make voting more convenient have had almost no effect in the South, where turnout is comparatively low. Along with the statistical analysis, Springer focuses on both high- and low-turnout states to provide a rich qualitative exploration of alternative explanations. The work is repetitive in spots, and the title seems to have nothing to do with the actual content of the book, although the subtitle is accurate. Still, a careful, comprehensive, and creative analysis. --Robert E. O'Connor, National Science Foundation
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
