One Person, No Vote

One Person, No Vote connects the overtly racist election practices of the Jim Crow South to the voter fraud laws of today. While discussing the history of discriminatory laws and biased officials, Anderson shows that racist attitudes do not disappear with Supreme Court decisions or civil rights legislation. Rather, they look for ways around them. When the Texas Democratic Party couldn’t limit primary elections to White people only, they changed status from a public organization to a private one. When the Supreme Court ruled against them again, they changed the membership rules to put their actions in good standing.

The Voting Rights Act forced Southern states to obtain federal preclearance before putting election laws into effect. While this was a vital buffer to ensure fair elections, there were ways around this, such as Florida’s felony disfranchisement guidance that left people at the mercy of the governor. Republican administrations also relaxed enforcement efforts with a George W. Bush appointee pushing through a Georgia voter ID law that clearly discriminated against people of color. State legislatures passed regulations that violated the VRA but waited for years until the Shelby decision removed the preclearance requirement.