Race, Class, and Precinct Quality in American Cities

The 2000 presidential election highlighted the importance of polling place accessibility and quality when the New York Times ran a headline “Arriving at Some Florida Voting Places, Some Blacks Found Frustration”. During the 2004 elections scholars across the country embarked on a study of precinct quality using the same characteristics laid out in an LA pilot. While this may not be a uniquely American problem, this book uses a specific method to study the way voting takes place in the US. Given the current tension in places like Arizona and its likely impact on upcoming elections, this book is very timely, and in fact, Phoenix is one of this cities studied in the book. From David Leal: “my co-editor (Matt Barreto) is the rising star in the Latino politics field, so a book co-edited by him would be a considerable coup for the series.” He did his PhD at UC Irvine under Bernard Grofman and has published in all of the top political science journals. Not only is this proposal good for the IMPP series, but it is complimentary with the voting topics we publish in the areas of public choice and constitutional political economy. This is the second proposal to come out of my meetings with Leal at APSA earlier this month. Not only has Leal been very active with the series, he has been a tremendous asset for Diana our marketing department with the development of the new Springer.com political science homepage and the multi-format MPSA conference.