It is getting late in the holiday season, but if you still have some shopping to do for those election geeks on your list, here are a few suggestions, in no particular order of preference!

• An old voting machine. There are a number for sale on ebay, for example, here is one (sale ends December 27!). Just search ebay for “voting machine”.
• A new iPod. All geeks have to have one. And they will want to use it to subscribe to our podcast.
• A cool new book. Some recently published bookes we are now reading:

  • Eric C. Bjornlund, “Beyond Free and Fair: Monitoring Elections and Building Democracy” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).
  • Tracy Campbell, “Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, An American Political Tradition (1742-2004)” (Carroll and Graf, 2005).
  • Ronald Hayduk, “Gatekeepers to the Franchise: Shaping Election Administration in New York” (Northern llinois, 2005).
• Electoral college sportswear, likely to be a hot commodity in 2008 (special holiday thanks to Doug Chapin, Jr. for this tip!).
• A share or two of Diebold stock, through their convenient “DRIP” (“Direct Purchase, Sale and Divident Reinvestment Plan”). Might not be a bad investment, if the rumors we hear from knowledgeable folks are true and if management is thinking of shedding their voting system business.
• And don’t forget “Point, Click and Vote” as a stocking stuffer; still selling like hotcakes on amazon.com.

If you have other hot holiday shopping tips for election geeks, please email them along. We’ll add clever ones to the list!