Elections & Erections

Elections & Erections
Author: Pieter-Dirk Uys
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2011-03-28
Genre:
ISBN: 1770201459

At last, Pieter-Dirk Uys, South Africa’s most famous political satirist, entertainer and AIDS activist, has penned a memoir. He takes us back to his upbringing in apartheid South Africa, his early days in the theatre, and the birth of his alter ego, Evita Bezuidenhout, the ambassador to the fictitious homeland of Bapetikosweti. He revisits his political satire, which exposed the absurdities of Whites Only policies and the ridiculousness of the fear surrounding them. He also writes frankly about his sexual journeys in a conservative, Calvinistic society that forbade interracial sex and homosexuality. With the end of apartheid and the fall of the old tyrants, Uys wondered, did he still have a job to do? But a new democracy comes with its own challenges and absurdities, and the government continues to write his scripts for him. Whether he is educating voters or informing the youth about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, he goes to war against ignorance and complacency, brandishing his unique weapons: laughter, compassion ... and a plastic penis! This is a book about journeys, both geographical and personal, a document of Pieter-Dirk Uys’s love affair with South Africa and its people. Frank and controversial, hilarious and humane, Elections & Erections expresses his passion and anger towards present circumstances, and his hope and optimism for the future.

The Myth of Voter Fraud

The Myth of Voter Fraud
Author: Lorraine C. Minnite
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2011-03-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0801457823

Allegations that widespread voter fraud is threatening to the integrity of American elections and American democracy itself have intensified since the disputed 2000 presidential election. The claim that elections are being stolen by illegal immigrants and unscrupulous voter registration activists and vote buyers has been used to persuade the public that voter malfeasance is of greater concern than structural inequities in the ways votes are gathered and tallied, justifying ever tighter restrictions on access to the polls. Yet, that claim is a myth. In The Myth of Voter Fraud, Lorraine C. Minnite presents the results of her meticulous search for evidence of voter fraud. She concludes that while voting irregularities produced by the fragmented and complex nature of the electoral process in the United States are common, incidents of deliberate voter fraud are actually quite rare. Based on painstaking research aggregating and sifting through data from a variety of sources, including public records requests to all fifty state governments and the U.S. Justice Department, Minnite contends that voter fraud is in reality a politically constructed myth intended to further complicate the voting process and reduce voter turnout. She refutes several high-profile charges of alleged voter fraud, such as the assertion that eight of the 9/11 hijackers were registered to vote, and makes the question of voter fraud more precise by distinguishing fraud from the manifold ways in which electoral democracy can be distorted. Effectively disentangling misunderstandings and deliberate distortions from reality, The Myth of Voter Fraud provides rigorous empirical evidence for those fighting to make the electoral process more efficient, more equitable, and more democratic.

Congressional Record

Congressional Record
Author: United States. Congress
Publisher:
Total Pages: 654
Release: 1948
Genre: Law
ISBN:

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)