Download or read book Making Votes Count written by Gary W. Cox and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-03-28 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular elections are at the heart of representative democracy. Thus, understanding the laws and practices that govern such elections is essential to understanding modern democracy. In this book, Cox views electoral laws as posing a variety of coordination problems that political forces must solve. Coordination problems - and with them the necessity of negotiating withdrawals, strategic voting, and other species of strategic coordination - arise in all electoral systems. This book employs a unified game-theoretic model to study strategic coordination worldwide and that relies primarily on constituency-level rather than national aggregate data in testing theoretical propositions about the effects of electoral laws. This book also considers not just what happens when political forces succeed in solving the coordination problems inherent in the electoral system they face but also what happens when they fail.

Download or read book Making Every Vote Count written by Henry Milner and published by Peterborough, Ont. : Broadview Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Steps Toward Making Every Vote Count brings together the best analyses from the best qualified observers on developments in the growing movement to reform Canada's electoral system. Among mature democracies, only the United States and Canada use the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system for electing all state and provincial, as well as national, law makers. In Canada the debate over the electoral system, which began in earnest after the 1997 federal election, is now moving from the university and think-tank seminar room to the floor of five provincial legislatures. Four key chapters present up-to-date accounts of developments in BC, Quebec, PEI, and Ontario. They show the provinces moving at different speeds toward meeting an objective to propose a specific model of proportional representation that also ensures a continued role for directly elected representatives of specific geographic boundaries. Two chapters recount experiences in New Zealand and Scotland, which adopted electoral plans attempting just such a balance. Others look at South Africa, Japan, Frances, and the United States - each selected for the light its casts on a specific aspect of electoral system reform. The remaining chapters consider various practical implications of changing Canada's electoral system - now a very real prospect.

Download or read book Granddaddy s Turn written by Michael S. Bandy and published by Candlewick. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the true story of one family’s struggle for voting rights in the civil rights–era South, this moving tale shines an emotional spotlight on a dark facet of U.S. history. Life on the farm with Granddaddy is full of hard work, but despite all the chores, Granddaddy always makes time for play, especially fishing trips. Even when there isn’t a bite to catch, he reminds young Michael that it takes patience to get what’s coming to you. One morning, when Granddaddy heads into town in his fancy suit, Michael knows that something very special must be happening—and sure enough, everyone is lined up at the town hall! For the very first time, Granddaddy is allowed to vote, and he couldn’t be more proud. But can Michael be patient when it seems that justice just can’t come soon enough? This powerful and touching true-life story shares one boy’s perspective of growing up in the segregated South, while beautiful illustrations depict the rural setting in tender detail.

Download or read book Making All Votes Count written by Jerry Spriggs and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-31 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Making All Votes Count!" presents a proportional presidential voting approach called, "Equal Voice Voting." It examines the 15 presidential elections from 1960-2016, comparing election results with what could have happened in those elections if Equal Voice Voting were used instead on a state-by-state basis. Equal Voice Voting closely mirrors the popular vote results while maintaining the voting voice of each state. It preserves the Electoral College and retains the Founding Fathers' intent without requiring a constitutional amendment. The results from the 2016 presidential election are compared with what could have happened if Equal Voice Voting had been used instead, on a state-by-state basis as well as across the nation. Attention is given to alternate voting approaches, such as: the popular vote, the national popular vote and congressional district voting. Attention is also given to gerrymandering showing how it is often used to manipulate voting outcomes. "Making All Votes Count!" can be used as an educational tool, as a ready reference for past presidential elections and as a tool to encourage future legislation. More than a fact-based resource, "Making All Votes Count" urges readers and legislators alike to remedy a systemic problem of our current all-or-nothing (some call it winner-takes-all) voting approach that causes many votes (and voters) to not matter in the final presidential election results. "Making All Votes Count!" points out that Equal Voice Voting can be instituted on a state-by-state basis without enacting a constitutional amendment or relying on an interstate compact. Equal Voice Voting can become a reality through the efforts of legislators interested in having all of their constituents matter rather than a selected percentage of voters.

Download or read book Voting Counts written by Law Commission of Canada and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Through the electoral process, citizens grant authority to their governments and to the laws governments enact. In recent years more and more Canadians have expressed their desire for improvements to our system of democratic governance, and to the mechanisms through which they can participate in government decision-making processes...This report aims to clarify the debates surrounding electoral reform: it reviews the arguments advanced to justify change, evaluates their relevance and cogency, and proposes a new model." -- p. vii.

Download or read book Lillian s Right to Vote written by Jonah Winter and published by Anne Schwartz Books. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An elderly African American woman, en route to vote, remembers her family’s tumultuous voting history in this picture book publishing in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As Lillian, a one-hundred-year-old African American woman, makes a “long haul up a steep hill” to her polling place, she sees more than trees and sky—she sees her family’s history. She sees the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and her great-grandfather voting for the first time. She sees her parents trying to register to vote. And she sees herself marching in a protest from Selma to Montgomery. Veteran bestselling picture-book author Jonah Winter and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner Shane W. Evans vividly recall America’s battle for civil rights in this lyrical, poignant account of one woman’s fierce determination to make it up the hill and make her voice heard. "Moving.... Stirs up a potent mixture of grief, anger, and pride at the history of black people’s fight for access to the ballot box." —The New York Times "A much-needed picture book that will enlighten a new generation about battles won and a timely call to uphold these victories in the present." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred "A valuable introduction to and overview of the civil rights movement." —Publishers Weekly, Starred "An important book that will give you goose bumps." —Booklist, Starred

Download or read book Every Vote Matters written by Thomas A. Jacobs and published by Free Spirit Publishing. This book was released on 2016-08-10 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encourage teens to recognize the importance of voting and making their voices heard in the democratic process with this timely book focused on Supreme Court decisions that came down to a single vote. Chapters examine key Supreme Court rulings and explore how these cases have affected the lives and rights of U.S. citizens—especially teens. Using a straightforward, impartial tone, the authors take a close look at often controversial cases and at the history of voting in the United States. The emphasis is involvement in local and national elections as well as other ways to be an engaged citizen. With an accompanying digital discussion guide, the book is a perfect choice for teachers and youth leaders to offer teens in the upcoming 2016 presidential election cycle.

Download or read book Steps Toward Making Every Vote Count written by Henry Milner and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Broken Ballots written by Douglas Jones and published by Center for the Study of Language and Information Publica Tion. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many of us, the presidential election of 2000 was a wake-up call. The controversy following the vote count led to demands for election reform. But the new voting systems that were subsequently introduced to the market have serious security flaws, and many are confusing and difficult to use. Moreover, legislation has not kept up with the constantly evolving voting technology, leaving little to no legal recourse when votes are improperly counted. How did we come to acquire the complex technology we now depend on to count votes? Douglas Jones and Barbara Simons probe this question, along with public policy and regulatory issues raised by our voting technologies. Broken Ballots is a thorough and incisive analysis of the current voting climate that approaches American elections from technological, legal, and historical perspectives. The authors examine the ways in which Americans vote today, gauging how inaccurate, unreliable, and insecure our voting systems are. An important book for election administrators, political scientists, and students of government and technology policy, Broken Ballots is also a vital tool for any voting American.

Download or read book Who s Counting written by John Fund and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2012-08-14 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2012 election will be one of the hardest-fought in U.S. history. It is also likely to be one of the closest, a fact that brings concerns about voter fraud and bureaucratic incompetence in the conduct of elections front and center. If we don't take notice, we could see another debacle like the Bush-Gore Florida recount of 2000 in which courts and lawyers intervened in what should have involved only voters. Who's Counting? will focus attention on many problems of our election system, ranging from voter fraud to a slipshod system of vote counting that noted political scientist Walter Dean Burnham calls “the most careless of the developed world.” In an effort to clean up our election laws, reduce fraud and increase public confidence in the integrity of the voting system, many states ranging from Georgia to Wisconsin have passed laws requiring a photo ID be shown at the polls and curbing the rampant use of absentee ballots, a tool of choice by fraudsters. The response from Obama allies has been to belittle the need for such laws and attack them as akin to the second coming of a racist tide in American life. In the summer of 2011, both Bill Clinton and DNC chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz preposterously claimed that such laws suppressed minority voters and represented a return to the era of Jim Crow. But voter fraud is a well-documented reality in American elections. Just this year, a sheriff and county clerk in West Virginia pleaded guilty to stuffing ballot boxes with fraudulent absentee ballots that changed the outcome of an election. In 2005, a state senate election in Tennessee was overturned because of voter fraud. The margin of victory? 13 votes. In 2008, the Minnesota senate race that provided the 60th vote needed to pass Obamacare was decided by a little over 300 votes. Almost 200 felons have already been convicted of voting illegally in that election and dozens of other prosecutions are still pending. Public confidence in the integrity of elections is at an all-time low. In the Cooperative Congressional Election Study of 2008, 62% of American voters thought that voter fraud was very common or somewhat common. Fear that elections are being stolen erodes the legitimacy of our government. That's why the vast majority of Americans support laws like Kansas's Secure and Fair Elections Act. A 2010 Rasmussen poll showed that 82% of Americans support photo ID laws. While Americans frequently demand observers and best practices in the elections of other countries, we are often blind to the need to scrutinize our own elections. We may pay the consequences in 2012 if a close election leads us into pitched partisan battles and court fights that will dwarf the Bush-Gore recount wars.

Download or read book Making Every Vote Count written by British Columbia. Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform and published by Citizens' Assembly. This book was released on 2004 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first part of this technical report briefly reviews the current system of voting in British Columbia, then describes the single transferable voting process that has been recommended for adoption by the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform. The second part describes the work of the Assembly its selection phase, learning phase, public hearings phase, and the final deliberation phase when the recommendations on electoral reform were made. It also summarizes an evaluation of the Assembly's work and the Assembly's activities in communications & public awareness. The final part contains supporting materials including a history of the Assembly, information on the approach used to select Assembly members, documents used in the selection phase, and a glossary.

Download or read book Electoral College Reform written by Thomas H. Neale and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) Competing Approaches: Direct Popular Election v. Electoral College Reform; (3) Direct Popular Election: Pro and Con; (4) Electoral College Reform: Pro and Con; (5) Electoral College Amendments Proposed in the 111th Congress; (6) Contemporary Activity in the States; (7) 2004: Colorado Amendment 36; (8) 2007-2008: The Presidential Reform Act (California Counts); (9) 2006-Present: National Popular Vote -- Direct Popular Election Through an Interstate Compact; Origins; The Plan; National Popular Vote, Inc.; Action in the State Legislatures; States That Have Approved NPV; National Popular Vote; (10) Prospects for Change -- An Analysis; (11) State Action -- A Viable Reform Alternative?; (12) Concluding Observations.

Download or read book Let the People Pick the President written by Jesse Wegman and published by All Points Books. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Wegman combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America’s ‘core democratic principles’ and should be done away with..." —Publishers Weekly The framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amend or abolish it more than 700 times. To this day, millions of voters, and even members of Congress, misunderstand how it works. It deepens our national divide and distorts the core democratic principles of political equality and majority rule. How can we tolerate the Electoral College when every vote does not count the same, and the candidate who gets the most votes can lose? Twice in the last five elections, the Electoral College has overridden the popular vote, calling the integrity of the entire system into question—and creating a false picture of a country divided into bright red and blue blocks when in fact we are purple from coast to coast. Even when the popular-vote winner becomes president, tens of millions of Americans—Republicans and Democrats alike—find that their votes didn't matter. And, with statewide winner-take-all rules, only a handful of battleground states ultimately decide who will become president. Now, as political passions reach a boiling point at the dawn of the 2020 race, the message from the American people is clear: The way we vote for the only official whose job it is to represent all Americans is neither fair nor just. Major reform is needed—now. Isn't it time to let the people pick the president? In this thoroughly researched and engaging call to arms, Supreme Court journalist and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman draws upon the history of the founding era, as well as information gleaned from campaign managers, field directors, and other officials from twenty-first-century Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, to make a powerful case for abolishing the antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President he shows how we can at long last make every vote in the United States count—and restore belief in our democratic system.

Download or read book Making Every Vote Count written by National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Making Every Vote Count written by British Columbia. Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform and published by Citizens' Assembly. This book was released on 2004 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first part of this technical report briefly reviews the current system of voting in British Columbia, then describes the single transferable voting process that has been recommended for adoption by the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform. The second part describes the work of the Assembly its selection phase, learning phase, public hearings phase, and the final deliberation phase when the recommendations on electoral reform were made. It also summarizes an evaluation of the Assembly's work and the Assembly's activities in communications & public awareness. The final part contains supporting materials including a history of the Assembly, information on the approach used to select Assembly members, documents used in the selection phase, and a glossary.

Download or read book Votes That Count and Voters Who Don t written by Sharon E. Jarvis and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2019-06-27 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, journalists have called the winners of U.S. presidential elections—often in error—well before the closing of the polls. In Votes That Count and Voters Who Don’t, Sharon E. Jarvis and Soo-Hye Han investigate what motivates journalists to call elections before the votes have been tallied and, more importantly, what this and similar practices signal to the electorate about the value of voter participation. Jarvis and Han track how journalists have told the story of electoral participation during the last eighteen presidential elections, revealing how the portrayal of voters in the popular press has evolved over the last half century from that of mobilized partisan actors vital to electoral outcomes to that of pawns of political elites and captives of a flawed electoral system. The authors engage with experiments and focus groups to reveal the effects that these portrayals have on voters and share their findings in interviews with prominent journalists. Votes That Count and Voters Who Don’t not only explores the failings of the media but also shows how the story of electoral participation might be told in ways that support both democratic and journalistic values. At a time when professional strategists are pressuring journalists to provide favorable coverage for their causes and candidates, this book invites academics, organizations, the press, and citizens alike to advocate for the voter’s place in the news.

Download or read book Making Every Vote Count written by British Columbia. Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: