“Evaluating Elections”

Today’s as good a day as any to point out that this new book by Lonna Akteson, Thad Hall and I will be available at the end of this month, “Evaluating Elections: A Handbook of Methods and Standards.” Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

In competitive and contested democratic elections, insuring integrity is critical. Evaluating Elections shows why systematic analysis and reporting of election performance is important and how data-driven performance management can be used by election officials to improve elections. The authors outline how performance management systems can function in elections and their benefits for voters, candidates, and political parties. Journalists, election administrators, and even candidates often ask whether recent elections were run well, whether there were problems in the administration of a particular state’s elections, and how well elections were run across the country. The authors explain that such questions are difficult to answer because of the complexity of election administration and because there is currently no standard or accepted framework to assess the general quality of an election.

Available November 30, 2012 — just in time for holiday orders (and post-election evaluation!).