Election Administration in the United States: The State of Reform After Bush V. Gore

This book tells the story of how the way in which we conduct elections has changed after the Florida recount litigation of 2000. Some of the nation's leading experts look at various aspects of election administration, including issues of ballot format, changes in registration procedures, the growth in the availability of absentee ballot rules and other forms of “convenience voting,” and changes in the technology used to record our votes. They also look at how the Bush v. Gore decision has been used by courts that monitor the election process and at the consequences of changes in practice for levels of invalid ballots, magnitude of racial disparities in voting, voter turnout, and access to the ballot by those living outside the United States. The editors, in their introduction, also consider the normative question of exactly what we want a voting system to do. An epilogue by two leading election law specialists looks at how election administration and election contest issues played out in the 2012 presidential election.

R. Michael Alvarez is Professor of Political Science at the California Institute of Technology. He earned his BA from Carleton College and his PhD from Duke University. He is the author of numerous books, including Evaluating Elections: A Handbook of Methods and Standards (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Bernard Grofman is Peltason Chair in Democracy Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, and the immediate past director of the university's Center for the Study of Democracy. He is the author or coauthor of five books and the editor or co-editor of twenty books. He has written more than 200 research articles and research notes. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Copenhagen.