Absentee and Early Voting ─ Trends, Promises, and Perils

In explaining why people are rather suddenly choosing to cast their ballots anywhere but the voting booth and anytime but on election day, Fortier (American Enterprise Institute) carefully avoids mentioning the physical suppression and intimidation of voters in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections and the introduction of easily hackable voting machines. Early and absentee voting may be convenient, he says, but there is no evidence that it increases turnout; he deliberately does not consider the cost savings to states. On the other hand, he describes at length such potential problems as fraud, undue party influence, the loss of a civic ritual, and the wasting of the last few days of all that very expensive campaign advertising. He recommends making such practices as hard as possible. There is no index. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John C. Fortier is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he serves as the principal contributor to the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project.