NBN
In Absentee and Early Voting: Trends, Promises, and Perils, John Fortier documents the dramatic increase in absentee voting and, more recently, the meteoric rise in early voting. He examines the legal and historical reasons for changes in the voting system and the many differences across states. Fortier offers his thoughts about what the changes have meant for the country and where we should go from here.

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In explaining why people are rather suddenly choosing to cast their ballots anywhere but the voting booth and anytime but on election day, Fortier (American Enterprise Institute) carefully avoids mentioning the physical suppression and intimidation of voters in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections and the introduction of easily hackable voting machines. Early and absentee voting may be convenient, he says, but there is no evidence that it increases turnout; he deliberately does not consider the cost savings to states. On the other hand, he describes at length such potential problems as fraud, undue party influence, the loss of a civic ritual, and the wasting of the last few days of all that very expensive campaign advertising. He recommends making such practices as hard as possible. There is no index. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)