Additional Reading
Web
The League of Women
Voters 
has a Voter Information section with links to on-line registration
and a program to "take a friend to vote". They also provide
information about the candidates and links to many other sites.
The
Federal Election Commission
offers complete information on elections and voting, including voter
registration and turnout statistics.
The
U.S. Census Bureau
offers information on voter turnout in the United States, and voter
registration links.
The
Interfaith Alliance
offers extensive information on "equipping people of faith
and good will for political participation." Of particular interest
is "Religion
in the 2004 Election: Setting the Stage" .
Project Vote
Smart
offers "abundant, accurate, unbiased and relevant information"
to voters "in order to cast an informed vote on election day."
onlinedemocracy.com
is a website that facilitates on-line voter registration. They write
that this effort "puts the people back into 'We the people
of the United States...' by providing citizen members with
the tools and information they need to make the most out of their
right to vote."
USA
Votenet
"linking all Americans to the power of the vote," offers
multiple resources such as voter statistics divided by sex, sexual
preference, race, and otherly abled. There are also links to other
voter turnout and voter registration information, and a listing
of successful techniques to use in getting out the vote.
MoveOn.org
has a bulletin board devoted to "Voting and Democracy: The
Challenges Ahead," offering information on voter security concerns
and "A Voting and Democracy Primer."
The Joan
Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy
at Harvard University has assembled an extensive study of citizen
involvement in an election campaign, related to the publication
of the book The Vanishing Voter
(see below).
Videos
Unprecedented—2000
Presidential Election
– A film documenting the battle for the Presidency in Florida
and the undermining of democracy in America.
What
America Needs: From Sea to Shining Sea
– Traveling by train from NYC to LA, a documentary videographer
asks more than 500 people from dozens of different communities:
“What do you think America Needs?”
Spoken word performance and a chilling reading of the Declaration
of Independence from www.declareyourself.com
(click link at the bottom of the page)
Invisible
Ballots: The Temptation for Electronic Vote Fraud
– An in-depth exposé of all-electric computerized voting.
Voting In America
– An independent documentary about why Americans don’t
vote.
Books
Campaign 2004: Beacon Authors on the
Issues!
Soul
of A Citizen
Paul Loeb
(St. Martin Press, 1999).
Inspiring stories of individuals who unexpectedly found fulfillment through
social involvement. Through these wise and powerful antidotes we are encouraged
to leave behind passivity and embrace participation while combating cynicism.
The
Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time
of Fear
Paul Loeb (Basic Books 2004).
An inspiring “citizen's guide to hope in a time of fear," with a
stellar collection of contributors who include Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela,
Terry Tempest Williams, Tony Kushner, Sherman Alexie, Wendell Berry, and the
powerful UUA minister Victoria Safford.
Whose
Vote Counts
Robert Richie and Steven Hall (Beacon, 2001).
The authors argue that we need a new way of electing our representatives
to combat voter apathy and the leveling of political views. Such
a system already exists in many parts of the world, including some
places in the U.S.: proportional representation. Leading activists
and scholars, including Cynthia McKinney, John Ferejohn, and Daniel
Cantor, respond.
The
Soul of Politics: Beyond “Religious Right” and “Secular
Left”
Jim Wallis (New Press, 1994)
The Soul of Politics responds to signs of cultural breakdown and
political impasse with a resounding call to reintegrate politics
and spirituality. Wallis draws on his own experience in the urban
ghettos of Washington, D.C., to show why traditional liberal and
conservative options that emphasize either social justice or personal
values fall short of solutions.
The
Best Democracy Money Can Buy
Greg Palast (Plume Books, 2003)
Award-winning investigative journalist Greg Palast digs deep to
unearth the ugly facts that few reporters working anywhere in the
world today have the courage or ability to cover. From East Timor
to Waco, he has exposed some of the most egregious cases of political
corruption, corporate fraud, and financial manipulation in the US
and abroad. His uncanny investigative skills as well as his no-holds-barred
style have made him an anathema among magnates on four continents
and a living legend among his colleagues and his devoted readership.
Moral
Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think
George Lakoff (University of Chicago, 2002)
Why
Americans Still Don't Vote: And Why Politicians Want it That Way
Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. (Beacon Press, 2000).
Amazon.com writes, "The co-authors were key players in the
long battle to reform voter registration laws that finally resulted
in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (also known as the
Motor Voter law). When "Why Americans Don't Vote" was
first published in 1988, this battle was still raging, and their
book was a fiery salvo. It demonstrated that the twentieth century
had witnessed a concerted effort to restrict voting by immigrants
and blacks through a combination of poll taxes, literacy tests,
and unwieldy voter registration requirements."
The Impossible Will Take a Little While
Paul Lobe (Basic Books, Coming in August 2004)
Get
Out The Vote! How to Increase Voter Turnout
Donald Green and Alan Gerber (Brookings Institution Press, 2004)
John Green of The Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University
of Akron says: “Get Out The Vote is an excellent book, well
written and well organized. The authors hit just the right balance
of readability and sophistication, presenting complex research findings
in a cogent and usable fashion. The clear presentation of experimental
data for a lay audience makes it unique in the field.”
Making
Policy Making Change
Makani Themba. (Jossey-Bass, 1999).
“Full of practical "how-to" ideas for grassroots
organizing to change public policy. An all-too-rare balance of realism
and optimistic vision." (Elizabeth Martinez, author, DeColores
Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century).
The
American Creed: A Spiritual and Patriotic Primer
Forrest Church (St. Martin's Press, 2002)
This is a concise yet far-reaching book about the intersection of
religious principles and secular strengths-the union of freedom
and faith-that, from the earliest days to the present, have defined
this country. As expressed in the words of leaders from George Washington
to Martin Luther King, Jr., that union, writes Forrest Church, is
a "living will."
The
Vanishing Voter: Public Involvement in an Age of Uncertainty
Thomas E.Patterson. (Knopf, 2002).
Publisher's Weekly writes, "In the year preceding the 2000
presidential election, scholars at Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein
Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy conducted a study
designed to uncover the reasons behind the growing national voter
malaise. Based on the Vanishing Voter Project results, Patterson,
who teaches at the Shorenstein Center, identifies and analyzes why
voters have turned away from participatory politics."
The
Disappearing American Voter
Ruy A. Teixeira. (Brookings Institution Press, 1992).
Voice
and Equality: Civic Volunteerism in American Politics
Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Henry E. Brady. (Belknap Press,
1996).
This book, based on a survey of more than 15,000 respondents, shows
that some individuals have a greater voice in politics than others,
and that this equality results not just from varying inclinations
toward activity, but also from unequal access to vital resources
such as education.
Where
Have All the Voters Gone?
Martin P. Wattenbert. (Harvard University Press, 2002).
Library Journal writes, "Wattenberg's book is a lucid presentation
of new and prior research on an important problem."
Bridging
the Class Divide
Linda Stout (Beacon Press, 1997).
Through the inspiring story of her life as the daughter of a tenant
farmer, self-taught activist and founder of the Piedmont Peace Project,
an innovative grassroots organization that works for peace, jobs,
and social services in rural North Carolina, Linda Stout offers
practical lessons for how to build real working relationships among
people of different income levels, races, and genders.
Soul
Work: Anti-racist Theologies in Dialogue
Edited by Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley and Nancy Palmer Jones (Skinner
House, 2002).
Addresses such questions as: What theological or philosophical beliefs
bind us together in our shared struggle against racism? What are
the costs of racism, both for the oppressors and the oppressed?
Contact Sarah Craft, UUA Voting Project Coordinator, voting@uua.org
 ,
with questions, resources, concerns, news, reports, and ideas about
your congregation’s current or potential voting project.
Sign up for the UUA’s
Voter-News E-mail List for weekly updates on voter resources and
a chance to share your congregation’s activities and successes.
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