Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition-1742-2004

This is a great resource for anyone seeking to become better informed regarding the types and extent of election fraud that have occurred throughout American history. In particular, it demonstrates very clearly that ballot secrecy is essential as a means of combating coercion (rather than as a privacy safeguard, as many believe), and that lapses of secrecy and of other election safeguards are leading to significant outcome-changing fraud to this very day. Although highly informative, this book is unlikely to provide entertaining reading to anyone other than the most avid history buff. As a reference, it seems quite comprehensive and for the most part even-handed, but even with 57 pages of end notes, I found some of its bolder historical interpretations devoid of explicit support. On the other hand, when the reasonable interpretation is inescapable, the reader is usually left to draw his own conclusions, which requires a certain amount of sustained attentiveness. Perhaps most unfortunate is that the book's publication predates the widespread academic acceptance of end-to-end auditable voting systems, which would render ineffective many of the historical fraud mechanisms, in particular mechanisms that are otherwise most difficult for the voter to detect. (The interested reader should search Wikipedia for "E2E".) Nonetheless, the fundamental conclusion that no technology can entirely substitute for vigilance remains sound.

Most honest people tend to believe that good laws ensure good government. This is not true. Good laws are worth nothing more than the paper they are printed on if not adequately defended by good people who believe in them. As an outside example, Lincoln violated our Constitution in the short term in order to preserve it in the long term. Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney declared a major Lincoln act illegal, and Lincoln ignored him, and so did everybody else who mattered, and then Taney did not matter. Our voting rights are precious. They are based on the history of nearly a thousand years. But rights are hard to gain and easy to lose. From long before the beginning of our current government system slick crooks have done their best to abuse, for their own advantage, the voting rights of honest citizens. "Deliver the vote" tells much of that story. It is especially important in view of recent voting controversies. It is important to the survival of our system that everybody understand that there have always been plenty of people willing to do almost anything to "Deliver the vote." And it is important that all understand that this is still the case.

I have given this book five stars because, quite simply, it has changed the way I view American democracy. It is not news that election fraud has occurred in a number of local and national elections, but what is extremely enlightening is to learn that there has existed and still exists in this country a surprisingly large subculture that has engaged in election fraud on a regular basis and that has successfully thwarted the will of the people at numerous times and numerous locations for over two hundred years. Mr. Campbell produces a very large volume of documented cases of massive vote fraud, spanning Florida to California and Washington to Bush, which has the cumulative effect of changing one's perspective on the way elections have been conducted in this country. It is an illness that has been largely ignored, yet is so pervasive as to threaten the very foundation of our democracy. Mr. Campbell has brought this to light very effectively, with solid and extensive research; and he has delivered the information in a highly engaging way, incorporating a wry sense of humor. Perhaps the most interesting effect of reading this book, in the end, is the realization that its very existence is armor against the tyranny which could come from a system that gets too far out of hand.