Electoral Dysfunction

The companion book to the PBS documentary starring Mo Rocca that takes an irreverent but nonpartisan look at voting in the United States.

“Crisply written, irreverent yet engaged. . . . A lively, witty survey of the numerous ailments that afflict the American electoral system.” —Alexander Keyssar, Stirling Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard and author of The Right to Vote

Imagine a country where the right to vote is not guaranteed by the Constitution, where the candidate with the most votes loses, and where paperwork requirements and bureaucratic bungling disenfranchise millions. You're living in it. If the consequences weren't so serious, it would be funny.

Written for readers across the political spectrum who want their vote to count, Electoral Dysfunction is the fact-filled companion to the documentary starring political humorist and commentator Mo Rocca. This book examines an array of topics, including the Founders’ decision to omit the right to vote from the Constitution (and the legal system’s patchwork response to this omission); the quasi-democratic origins and impact of the Electoral College; the role of partisan officials in running elections; the foul-ups that plague election day; and today’s heated battles over voter identification, voter impersonation, and voter fraud.

Along the way we discover some astonishing facts: Founder Thomas Paine was once denied a ballot at a New Rochelle polling station; men who voted for Obama in 2008 experienced a notable surge in testosterone upon learning of his victory; and America’s greatest inventor, Thomas Alva Eidson, was issued his first patent in 1869 for the Electrographic Vote Recorder, only to be rebuffed by uninterested members of Congress. The book concludes with a reflection on how to improve the health of our voting system, crafted by a leading voter registration and youth voting expert, Rock the Vote’s president, Heather Smith.

“People are dying to vote—but not in the U.S., where only five in ten exercise the privilege in presidential elections. What’s standing in the way? Electoral Dysfunction begins the national conversation we need to have.” —Mark McKinnon, co-founder of No Labels