Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America

by Andrew Gumbel

The 2000 presidential election meltdown and the more recent controversy about computer voting machines did not come out of the blue. Steal This Vote tells the fraught but very colorful history of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560256761
• ISBN13: 9781560256762
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Nation Books
• Length: 362 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

To cry, or to cry out? And about what?

The election travesties of 2000 and 2004 left me angry and disgusted. I'm still angry and disgusted about those events and their conduct, but after reading Gumbel's book, I've softened my impressions a bit and redirected the focus of my ire and disgust. It's clear to me now that no American political party has ever seriously objected to election theft as long as the result was victory. Since achieving honest elections has never been an honest goal (except temporarily for the losers), a party in power has never had genuine interest in realizing honest results! So, here we are. I shouldn't be surprised at all that, but Gumbel's detail, clarity and focus make me wonder why I'm so late coming to the full realization table. Gumbel provides clear insight. Nevertheless, the reader is left to judge for himself what all this says about the alleged state of democracy in the U.S.A., past and present.

Reform long overdue?

One would have thought that of all the boring topics that an author could select, the mechanics and history of the secret ballot in the world's pre-eminent democracy should have been close to the top. But far from it, Mr Gumbel has documented and told a quite extraordinary and at times amazing tale. Whether he is right in every detail I have no idea but either way it ought to have every US citizen asking some very tough questions. Politics can be a venal game but surely the actual electoral process itself ought to be above question. Sadly it seems in the USA it's not.

Flat out Best Book on this subject

I was really impressed with this book. This is an incredibly important topic, and the author is so immensely knowledgeable, and his handling of the material is so comprehensive and fair, that by the end, I felt closer to grasping what's been going on with American politics than ever before. It turned my perception of the whole voting process in America completely around (I really never suspected it was THIS bad). If you have any interest at all in politics (and if you don't, well, you might be past saving), you should read this, and pass it along, and talk about it. It's an eye-opener. And so entertaining! I laughed out loud several times, and throughout, I felt that the author was presenting really substantial, weighty information in an appealing, witty style. (It's a fun book to cart around, too -- about 15 people stopped me and asked me about the book after glimpsing the title.)

Finally and Yikes!

Wow! After 2000 and 2004 I really did feel like the crisis of electoral politics in the US was systemic but not until Gumbel's book did I realize that the history is all there, well there in HIS book, not in my high school or college history books. Thank heaven he ends with tangible suggestions for solutions and ways to return us to a true democracy. Now the job is to organize to make those suggestions into reality.