The Measure of American Elections
The Measure of American Elections
Charles Stewart, III, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Policymaking in the realm of elections is too often grounded in anecdotes and opinions, rather than in good data and scientific research. To remedy this, The Measure of American Elections brings together a dozen leading scholars to examine the performance of elections across the United States, using a data-driven perspective. This book represents a transformation in debates about election reform, away from partisan and ideological posturing, toward using scientific analysis to evaluate the conduct of contemporary elections. The authors harness the power of newly available data to document all aspects of election administration, ranging from the registration of voters to the counting of ballots. They demonstrate what can be learned from giving serious attention to data, measurement, and objective analysis of American elections.
- Contributors are an all-star team of American politics scholars with expertise in research on election administration
- Provides all of the state-level data for three federal elections
Reviews & endorsements
"This book is the first of its kind, is highly relevant to ongoing policy debates, and is sure to become the touchstone for the field. The papers are technically rigorous, accessible to a general audience, and produced by some of the very best political scientists in the field."
Heather K. Gerken, J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law, Yale Law School
"This collection of studies has met the highest standards for the analysis of election administration of the United States. It points the way for future research and will shape policy debate – and, it is hoped, prescriptions for reform - in the years ahead. No one interested in the topic can do without it and almost any conversation on the subject must begin with it."
Bob Bauer, former Co-Chair of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration
"This is a landmark study of America’s highly flawed and increasingly controversial election administration system. It provides authoritative facts that are all too often missing in political debates over election procedures and impartial measures to benchmark our progress toward a better American electoral system. A must-read for anyone interested in the state of American elections."
Bruce E. Cain, Charles Louis Ducommun Professor of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University
Product details
July 2014Paperback
9781107699915
377 pages
227 × 152 × 19 mm
0.52kg
46 b/w illus. 53 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. The measure of American elections Barry C. Burden and Charles Stewart, III
- 2. Registration and voting: a view from the top Barry C. Burden
- 3. Voter registration: the process and quality of lists Stephen Ansolabehere and Eitan Hersh
- 4. Provisional ballots Michael J. Hanmer and Paul S. Herrnson
- 5. Mail ballots in the United States: policy choice and administrative challenge Christopher B. Mann
- 6. Voting from abroad: evaluating UOCAVA voting Thad E. Hall
- 7. Polling place practices and the voting experience Robert M. Stein and Gregg Vonnahme
- 8. Disability and election policies and practices Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse
- 9. The performance of election machines and the decline of residual votes in the US Charles Stewart, III
- 10. Voter confidence as a metric of election performance Paul Gronke
- 11. Election data transparency Lonna Rae Atkeson.
