Administering Elections: How American Elections Work (Elections, Voting, Technology)

Administering Elections provides a digest of contemporary American election administration using a systems perspective. The authors provide insight into the interconnected nature of all components of elections administration, and sheds like on the potential consequences of reforms that fail to account for this. Since the 2000 presidential election, attention to and scholarship about American elections have exploded alongside myriad proposals for election reform. This book provides a framework for a broader understanding of this critical dimension of American democracy by providing a digest and analysis of contemporary American election administration practices. Using a systems perspective, the authors provide policymakers, election officials, candidates, observers, and scholars with insight about the interconnected nature of election administration reforms as well as insight about the institutional and legal constraints that influence election administration systems. A central feature of their approach is attention to the ways in which unintended consequences of changes in one part of a system can ripple through other parts. The book pulls together the vast array of changes that have occurred in federal and state law and administrative practice since 2000 including the range of variation in state and local practices on many current election administration questions Front Matter....Pages i-xxxiv Understanding Election Administration Systems....Pages 1-26 The Structure of Election Administration at State and Local Levels....Pages 27-51 The Evolving Federal Role in Election Administration....Pages 53-76 The Legal Framework of Election Administration in the Modern Era....Pages 77-95 Pluralism, Political Participation, and Third-Party Groups....Pages 97-118 State Innovations in Election Administration....Pages 119-141 Current Challenges in Election Administration....Pages 143-169 Back Matter....Pages 171-211 "Administering Elections provides a digest of contemporary American election administration using a systems perspective. This provides insight into the interconnected nature of all components of elections administration, and sheds like on the potential consequences of reforms that fail to account for this"-- Provided by publisher