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Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to The White House
GUEST: Sasha Abramsky, author of “Conned,” Senior Fellow for Democracy at the public policy organization Demos, whose previous book was “Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation”

A June 1st article in Rolling Stone magazine by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked the question, “Was the 2004 election stolen?” In the article, Kennedy said, “The issue of what happened in 2004 is not an academic one… For the second election in a row, the president of the United States was selected not by the uncontested will of the people but under a cloud of dirty tricks.” My next guest, Sasha Abramsky adds that part of the problem is the growing disenfranchisement of Americans, particular people of color, who have had their votes taken away from them because of felony convictions. In his new book, “Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to The White House,” Abramsky takes us on a journey through disenfranchised America, detailing the revival of antidemocratic laws that came of age in the post-Civil War segregationist South, and profiling Americans who are fighting to regain the right to vote. I spoke with Sasha in studio recently and he began by reading an excerpt of his book.

For more information, visit www.connedthebook.com, and www.sashaabramsky.com.