Confirming Elections Creating Confidence and Integrity through Election Auditing

by Hall, Thad E.; Alvarez, R. Michael; Atkeson, Lonna Rae

• ISBN13: 9780230341210
• ISBN10: 0230341217
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-19
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Prior to the disputed 2000 presidential election, for most Americans the administration of elections was never a concern. Largely, the administration of elections, the technologies used in the process, and the general procedures used were typically of concern only to election officials, candidates running for office and those managing their races, and a very few academics. This volume begins to fill that vacuum by bringing together in one book a number of essays that citizens, academics, election officials, policy makers, and other stakeholders can read to become better informed about procedures that used today to audit elections and election administration, and to learn more about new approaches to improve existing election audit procedures.

Author Biography

R. Michael Alvarez is a professor of Political Science at the California Institute of Technology and the codirector of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project. He has studied campaigns, electoral behavior, research methodology, and voting technology in the United States and in many nations throughout the world. He received his PhD from Duke University. Alvarez is a fellow of the Political Methodology Society and is coeditor of the journal Political Analysis. Lonna Rae Atkeson is a professor and Regents' Lecturer in the Political Science Department at the University of New Mexico and the director of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections, and Democracy. Her expertise is in the area of campaigns, elections, election administration, public opinion, and political behavior. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Thad E. Hall is an associate professor of Political Science at the University of Utah and an internationally recognized expert in election administration. He is the coauthor of the books Point, Click, and Vote: The Future of Internet Voting and Electronic Elections: The Perils and Promise of Digital Democracy. He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Georgia in 2002.

Table of Contents

'Election audits are rapidly becoming election administrators' most powerful tool for ensuring that the system works for citizens as voters and taxpayers alike. This book should be required reading for anyone who seeks to understand why auditing the entire voting process is a necessity, not a luxury, for election officials nationwide.' – Doug Chapin, director of the Program for Excellence in Election Administration at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey