Voting Wars

In terms of the administration of elections, the 2000 presidential race was a watershed event. The dispute over the vote count in Florida, ultimately decided along with the presidency by the U. S. Supreme Court, revealed that our electoral processes are not only deeply flawed, but flawed in far too many ways. Voter rolls are often inaccurate, election workers are poorly trained, ballots are poorly designed, machines function inconsistently, procedures are not consistent from one county to the next, election administrators are often partisan (sometimes the state official who certifies the vote count is also the manager of one candidate's campaign in that state), and the laws governing elections vary from state to state. The result is that voters in different counties may have very different odds of casting a vote that is actually counted. None of the problems uncovered by the 2000 election have been solved; most have gotten worse. And the political atmosphere in which disputes over close elections must be resolved has grown significantly more polarized. In an environment in which litigation over elections has increased dramatically, judges now frequently divide along party lines in deciding election law disputes. "The Voting Wars" argues that the next very close presidential election has the potential to cause serious damage. Americans' faith in the integrity of their electoral processes and thus in the legitimacy of their government could be seriously compromised. Written by one of America's best-known experts on election law, "The Voting Wars" provides a definitive expert overview of an increasingly urgent threat to the democratic system.