After the People Vote : A Guide to the Electoral College

Now in its fourth edition, After the People Vote remains an indispensable concise guide to help students and all citizens understand this critical and controversial American political institution. The mechanisms that lead to the final selection of a president are complex. Some procedures are sketched out in the original Constitution and its amendments, and others in federal law, congressional rules and procedures, state laws, and political party rules. This new, expanded edition of After the People Vote—featuring new sections on public opinion on the Electoral College and proposals for amending the Electoral College system—explains how our system of electing a president works, especially the processes that kick in after the November general election date.

John C. Fortier is the director of governmental studies at the Biparti­san Policy Center, where he directed the Commission on Political Reform. He was previously a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also served as executive director of the Continuity of Government Commission, principal contributor to the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project, and participant in AEI’s Election Watch. He was the director of the Center for the Study of American Democracy at Kenyon College and taught at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Delaware, Harvard University, and Boston College. Fortier served as an adviser to the President’s Commission on Election Administration and a member of the American Law Institute’s Project on Election Administra­tion. He is the editor of the third edition of After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College (AEI Press, 2004) and author of Absentee and Early Voting: Trends, Promises, and Perils (AEI Press, 2006), as well as other books and scholarly and popular articles. He is a frequent radio and television commentator on Congress, the presidency, and elections.