{"id":37503,"date":"2022-06-16T20:39:47","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T01:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37503"},"modified":"2022-06-16T20:50:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T01:50:55","slug":"review-of-give-us-the-vote-by-susan-goldman-rubin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37503","title":{"rendered":"Review of Give Us the Vote! by Susan Goldman Rubin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Give Us the Vote!<\/p>\n

Over 200 Years of Fighting for the Ballot<\/em><\/p>\n

by Susan Goldman Rubin<\/p>\n

Holiday House, 2020. 124 pages.
\nReview written April 8, 2020, from a library book<\/p>\n

Give Us the Vote!<\/em> opened my eyes about the history of voting in the United States. Sure, I knew that African Americans needed a Constitutional amendment before they could vote, as did women. What I hadn\u2019t realized is that it\u2019s still always been a battle to have free and fair elections.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t realize, for example, that we didn\u2019t have a secret ballot until the early 1900s. Before that, people would buy and sell votes \u2013 and they could follow up depending on how the person voted. But even after that, it was still possible to bully people at the voting booth or try to exclude people from voting.<\/p>\n

All the way through the 1850s, people voted with their voice. (Or I should say, men voted with their voice.)<\/p>\n

The earliest method of voting was voicing one\u2019s choice in public. A citizen would literally stand up and say who he was voting for or raise his hand. This made intimidation easy. Around Election Day, candidates plied voters with rum, wine, and beer to win their votes, or bribed them with food and money. Since only property owners could vote, candidates often bought \u201cfreeholds,\u201d or temporary land rights, from large landowners. They gave these rights to landless men, and returned the deeds to the real owners after the election. Sometimes corrupt candidates would even pay voters not<\/em> to vote so that they could win a majority.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This book covers the battle to gain the right to vote for many different groups, as well as the many different kinds of cheating that people have used successfully over the years our country has been a nation. One popular method is getting fake people to vote or the same people voting many times. But then another technique is stealing and destroying ballots and\/or replacing them with fake ones. Getting the count correct is another whole area of danger. I didn\u2019t realize that it wasn\u2019t until the Civil War when soldiers wanted to vote that absentee ballots were allowed, and it was a big area of controversy, including new ways of committing voter fraud. <\/p>\n

Gerrymandering is mentioned, with both old and recent examples from both parties. The author mentions a 2019 Supreme Court case that decided that this is an issue for elected branches of government to decide, not the federal courts.<\/p>\n

This book is geared to teens, so it includes the movement to change the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen during the Vietnam War \u2013 and the current wish of some to bring it down to age sixteen.<\/p>\n

Many people agree that high schoolers care about local and national problems and should be allowed to vote. Studies prove that teenagers can gather and process information, weighing pros and cons as well as most adults. Research conducted by FairVote shows that sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds are as informed and engaged in political issues as older voters. If they start voting in their teens, they are more likely to make voting a lifelong habit and increase voter turnout.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Books like this will help young people realize we can\u2019t take for granted our rights to fair and free elections.<\/p>\n

HolidayHouse.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teen_Nonfiction\/give_us_the_vote.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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