‘America Votes! Second Edition’ Provides Key Information and Perspectives on Election Law

CHICAGO, July 26, 2012 — Just as the nation gears up for a presidential election this fall, the American Bar Association has released an updated and expanded second edition of America Votes! A Guide to Modern Election Law and Voting Rights. The book provides key information and important perspectives on election law questions that the courts are now addressing or will soon be considering.

The chapters address numerous nuts-and-bolts questions. Following are some examples:

• What safeguards should jurisdictions put in place to minimize cyberattacks and to make sure that vote-counting machines generate accurate totals?
• Should states be allowed to band together and appoint presidential electors in line with the winner of the national popular vote?
• How should third-party or independent candidates be able to gain access to the ballot?
• When do state ballot access laws violate constitutional rights?
• Are recent changes in voter registration laws designed to prevent fraud or suppress certain groups of voters?
• Will the “crown jewel” of the Voting Rights Act, the Section 5 preclearance provision, withstand the most recent constitutional challenge working its way to the Supreme Court?

America Votes! discusses the Voting Rights Act’s protections for racial, ethnic and language minorities, and the wisdom and logic of those provisions. The act raises complex issues of both statistical nuance and democratic theory.

“Lessons learned from real-world experiences are central to many of the chapters,” said Judge Leslie H. Southwick of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. “They provide a guide to election law that will be a great help to attorneys, judges and others who advise, litigate or write about elections.”

The editor of the first and second editions of the book, Ben Griffith, is a partner at Griffith & Griffith, in Cleveland, Miss. His practice focuses on federal and state civil litigation on behalf of governmental entities in the fields of election law, voting rights, civil rights, public-sector insurance coverage and environmental law. He is chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Election Law, a member of the House of Delegates and the Council of the Section of State and Local Government Law, and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Griffith is also involved in the ABA’s new Lawyer as Citizen initiative, which encourages lawyers to volunteer as poll workers on Election Day. He will be a panelist at “Volunteering at the Polls 101” on Aug. 5 at the ABA’s Annual Meeting in Chicago.  For more information on the Annual Meeting and conference registration for media, click here.

Title:                        America Votes! Second Edition: A Guide to Modern
                                    Election Law and Voting Rights
Publisher:              Co-sponsored by the ABA Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division;
                                     the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice;
                                     the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities; 
                                     and the ABA Standing Committee on Election Law
Product Code:       5330220
ISBN:                          978-1-61438-526-4
Size:                            6×9
Price:                         $109.95
Orders:                     800-285-2221 or ambar.org/americavotes2ed

Editor’s note: Review copies are available by sending an email to Anne Geron at Anne.Geron@americanbar.org. If you publish a review of this book, please send tearsheets or a copy for our files to Anne Geron, American Bar Association, Book Publishing, 321 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60654.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

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