The Measure of American Elections

Description

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.

Barry C. Burden is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of Personal Roots of Representation (2007) and co-author of Why Americans Split their Tickets (2002, with David C. Kimball). Burden has written or co-written more than thirty-five articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Electoral Studies. Charles Stewart, III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the former head of the political science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Budget Reform Politics (1989) and Analyzing Congress, 2nd edition (2011) and the co-author of Fighting for the Speakership (2013, with Jeffrey Jenkins). Stewart's writing has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Legislative Studies Quarterly, the Election Law Journal, and Harvard Law Review.

'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