After the People Vote, Third Edition (2004): A Guide to the Electorial College

This indispensable and timely guide to the Electoral College brings together leading constitutional, political, and legal scholars to explain how presidential elections really work, from the disputed contests of 1800, 1824, 1876, and the Bush v. Gore battle of 2000 to the debate over abolishing the system, offering a date-by-date roadmap from Election Day to Inauguration Day that will change how you understand American democracy.

The extraordinary presidential election contest in 2000 raised new issues about the electoral process. In the third edition of After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College, leading constitutional, political, and legal scholars use examples from that controversial election and other disputed elections to explain how the electoral college works. The new edition of this popular guide provides a short history of contested elections, including a fresh essay on the 2000 election. It features all-new essays arguing for and against the electoral college, as well as appendixes that are updated and expanded to include electoral college and popular vote totals from past presidential elections. An added section concentrates on the period between Election Day in November and the casting of votes by electors in December. After the People Vote is the only book of its kind that is keyed to the specific dates between Election Day and the inauguration, which allows the reader to focus on the key procedural issues at each juncture of the election.

Norman J. Ornstein is a senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he has been studying politics, elections, and the US Congress for more than four decades. Along with Thomas Mann and Michael Malbin, he created “Vital Statistics on Congress” in 1980, a go-to-reference guide that provides impartial data for congressional watchers, and is updated every two years. He is also a longtime participant of AEI’s Election Watch series and an adviser to the Continuity of Government Commission. Dr. Ornstein previously served as codirector of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. He has been involved in political reform for decades, particularly campaign finance, election reform, and House and Senate reform. He has also played a part in creating the Congressional Office of Compliance and the House Office of Congressional Ethics. He was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. He often appears on C-SPAN, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NPR, and “PBS NewsHour,” among other outlets. He served as an election analyst for CBS News for thirty years, and also was an on-air election analyst for BBC News. Through his family foundation named in honor of his late son Matthew, he helped spearhead the documentary “The Definition of Insanity,” about criminal justice and mental illness, which premiered at the Miami Film Festival in March 2020 and aired nationally on PBS on April 14, 2020. Dr. Ornstein’s articles and opinion pieces have been published widely, including in Foreign Affairs, the Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Politico, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and USA Today. He is also a contributing editor and columnist for The Atlantic. Dr. Ornstein’s books include the New York Times and Washington Post bestsellers “One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported” (St. Martin’s Press, 2017) with E. J. Dionne and Thomas E. Mann and “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism” (Basic Books, 2012) with Thomas E. Mann. His other books include, “The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track” (Oxford University Press, 2006) with Thomas E. Mann; and “The Permanent Campaign and Its Future” (AEI Press, 2000) edited with Thomas E. Mann. Dr. Ornstein has a PhD and a master’s in political science from the University of Michigan and a BA from the University of Minnesota.

John C. Fortier is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on Congress and elections, election administration, election demographics, voting (and absentee voting), the US presidency, and the Electoral College. He is also continuing his work on the continuity of government. Before rejoining AEI, Dr. Fortier was director of governmental studies at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the principal contributor to the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. He also has taught at Kenyon College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Delaware, Boston College, and Harvard University. He is the author and editor of “After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College” (AEI Press, 2004; fourth edition, 2020); “Second-Term Blues: How George W. Bush Has Governed” (Brookings Institution Press, 2007); and “Absentee and Early Voting: Trends, Promises, and Perils” (AEI Press, 2006). A prolific writer, Dr. Fortier has been published in scholarly journals and the popular press, including Politico and The Hill. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, and he has appeared on ABC News, Bloomberg, BBC News, C-SPAN, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News’ “Today,” National Public Radio, and “PBS NewsHour,” among others. Dr. Fortier has a PhD in political science from Boston College and a BA in government from Georgetown University.