Overton to Speak on Voting Rights at UI

By Chellie Pingree, President of Common Cause

We want to tell you about a chance to meet a good friend of ours who will be speaking in at the University of Iowa College of Law.  Spencer Overton is a voting rights activist, a law professor at George Washington University, and a member of our board.  He will be discussing his new book, Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression, at the University of Iowa College of Law on Friday, January 19, at 3 p.m. in the Levitt Auditorium of the Boyd Law Building.  Admission is free and open to the public.

Stealing Democracy is fun, timely, and important.  It starts off by showing how the themes from the movie "The Matrix" are played out in our flawed political system, and builds on that insight by recounting hot controversies like partisan redistricting in Texas, renewal of the Voting Rights Act, felon disenfranchisement, photo ID requirements, English-only ballots, and the 2000 and 2004 elections.

Please pass this email on to anyone you know who may want to attend, or might be interested in Spencer's book. 

Thank you.

P.S. While serving on a commission about presidential primaries, Spencer urged Iowa to restore voting rights to citizens who had completed their sentences.  A couple of months later, Iowa's governor did so (a move that restored rights to 98,000 voters, including 25 percent of the state's African American voting-age population).  You can see more about Spencer's book at http://www.stealingdemocracy.com.