Fresh Air, Alexander Keyssar and Kim Alexander

By: Terry Gross

Narrated by: Terry Gross

Historian Alexander Keyssar and President of the California Voter Foundation Kim Alexander on this edition of Fresh Air. In his new book The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, Alexander Keyssar examines the checkered history of our country's right to vote, and how this right was not for a time extended to certain groups of people, from propertyless whitemen, to women, immigrants, and African-Americans. Even now, he argues, that the wealthy and well-educated are for more likely to go to the polls than the poor and undereducated. Keyssar is Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University. Kim Alexander is President of the California Voter Foundation, organized to pioneer new technologies to improve democracy. The group produces the California Online Voter Guide. Recently Alexander was part of the Task Force for Internet Voting put together by California's Secretary of State. (Broadcast Date: November 29, 2000)Want more Fresh Air?

Get the latest issue.

Check out the complete archive.

(P) and ©2000 WHYY-FM