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Heather K. Gerken, The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System is Failing and How to Fix it. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009, 181 pp., $24.95 (hardcover). Heather Gerken's book, [...]

An increasing number of public policy issues are decided by ballot measures in the United States. We examine residual votes (the difference between the total ballots cast and the votes cast in a particular contest) on ballot issues and the presidential contest in 34 states that had issues on the ballot in the 2004 election. Residual vote levels for ballot issues are substantially higher and more varied than for the presidential contest. Residual votes in both types of contests are a function of ballot features, voting technology, campaign context, and demographic measures. However, some factors, especially voting machinery, have different effects on residual votes for president than on residual votes for ballot issues. A case study further indicates that full-face electronic voting machines sharply increase the number of residual votes on ballot measures. The results have implications for direct democracy and election reform in the United States. Keywords: election reform; residual votes; direct legislation; initiatives; ballot design; rolloff

The 2000 presidential election and the recount battle in Florida focused attention on local election administration in the United States. The Help America Vote Act, passed by the federal government in 2002, requires wholesale changes in voting equipment and other election procedures. However, the law did not address the selection of individuals who manage elections: both state and local election officials play a great role implementing federal and state election laws. Recently, several election reform advocates have argued for shifting to nonpartisan election administrators in the United States. Others, particularly associations representing election officials, have not endorsed that position. To inform this debate, we provide data on the selection methods and party affiliations for all local election officials in the United States (more than 4,500 individuals or commissions). We find considerable variation in the methods used to select state and local election officials in the United States., Introduction The United States has experienced several sweeping changes in election equipment and procedures since the disputed 2000 presidential election. To date, however, these changes have not addressed the selection [...]

Over the past decade, voter fraud has emerged as a salient issue in American politics and elections. Despite minimal evidence of fraud cases and non-existent effects on election outcomes, Americans continue to believe in the existence and impact of voter fraud on elections. In this paper, we examine a potentially key source of this disconnect – the U.S. news media. How the media cover voter fraud likely affects citizens' beliefs and opinions on the subject. However, little research exists exploring voter fraud coverage. In this paper, we examine the patterns and themes of voter fraud coverage in local newspapers for each of the 50 states during the 2012 elections. Amongst the results, we show that voter identification and registration were dominant topics in coverage. Further, battleground states and states that recently passed restrictive voting laws affected which topics related to voter fraud received the most attention. Finally, we find that the number of fraud cases in each state was unrelated to voter fraud news coverage. From an agenda setting and framing standpoint, our results suggest Republicans may have been successful in making voter identification and fraud a salient issue in the news during the 2012 elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]