Government Professor Publishes Book on Race and Voter Turnout

A new book that probes issues underlying race and voting in the United States has propelled Dr. Margaret Groarke to the attention of readers across the country. Groarke, assistant professor of government and director of the peace studies program at Manhattan College, has co-written her first book, Keeping Down the Black Vote: Race and the Demobilization of American Voters, which was published this past February.

To write the book, Groarke teamed with Frances Fox Piven, her advisor during graduate school at CUNY, and Lorraine Minnite, a former classmate at CUNY and current professor at Barnard College. Together, they describe how political leaders have used the demobilization of voters, particularly among blacks, to win elections.

The book thoroughly discusses the history of voter discouragement and its recent resurgence with the Bush administration. It explains new tactics, such as the fear-mongering of voter fraud and ballot security.

“Elections are won by demobilizing voters just as much as mobilizing voters … The administrative system can be manipulated for partisan advantage, usually because of claims of voter fraud, although there is little voter fraud in reality,” Groarke says.

The book also contends that election reform can be used to overly complicate the voting process and cause confusion and miscommunication.