Examining the politics of voting in the United States, this book shows how voting rights can empower minority groups. It presents arguments for and against non-citizen voting rights, and also examines contemporary political organisations and actors, who fought for and against campaigns to reinstate non-citizen voting.

This new book examines the actual politics of voting in the United States and shows how voting rights can empower minority groups. It is not widely known that non-citizens currently vote in local elections in Maryland and in Chicago, nor that over the last decade campaigns to expand the franchise the non-citizens have been launched in at least a dozen other jurisdictions from coast to coast. These practices have their roots in another little known fact: for most of the country's history from the founding until the 1920s - non-citizens voted in 22 states' local, state and even federal...

The history of democracy in America is the history of the extension of voting privileges from white, male property-owners to blacks, to women, and to citizens over eighteen years of age. Yet the number of U.S. citizens who actually vote is distressingly low: barely half of the eligible electorate vote in presidential elections, and even fewer cast ballots in state and local elections. Poor, minority, and urban communities report the lowest turnout rates, calling into question the reality of American democracy. Who or what is to blame? Among the many suspects, from stealthy politicians to...

This anthology offers a history of ACT UP for a new generation of activists and students. Divided into five sections, it explores the innovative use of civil rights era non-violent disobedience, media work and race and community building, to show how ACT UP has transformed activism.