Curtis Gans Quotes
Registration is a necessary—but not sufficient—condition for voting.
Curtis Gans, Director, Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, Quoted in New York Times, October 9, 1988
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Historically, there has been a tendency to make it difficult for the poor to vote and having election day during working hours on a weekday was a very effective day of doing that. In modern times voting hours have been extended to 9 PM in some states so that working people could more easily vote. However, in modern times calls for weekend voting or Internet voting has been difficult to produce bipartisan support as increasing turnout tends to favor one party—the Democrats—over the other.
At the time, this not only was true but there were few who argued that it should be different. It was the gross abuse of the control of the elective franchise by the Southern states after Blacks had been given the right to vote and continuing into the 1960s, that the Federal Government passed the Voting Rights Act. In the election of 2000, Al Gore had won by a narrow margin as the result of decisions of the Florida Courts finding that Gore had won the state, The Supreme Court, however, overrode Florida and by a 5-4 partisan vote gave Florida and hence the election to George W. Bush. Bingham’s principle had fallen completely.
Comparing America's voter registration procedures with those of other industrialized democracies:
For a later version of this “advice” see Josh Billings {594820}
The voting problems we have had are managerially and technology solvable but politically each solution is perceived as favoring one of the political parties in the particular jurisdiction and therefore there is resistance to the change.
Curtis Bernard Gans was an American activist, writer, and expert on American voting patterns.
