Now in its fourth edition, After the People Vote remains an indispensable concise guide to help students and all citizens understand this critical and controversial American political institution. The mechanisms that lead to the final selection of a president are complex. Some procedures are sketched out in the original Constitution and its amendments, and others in federal law, congressional rules and procedures, state laws, and political party rules. This new, expanded edition of After the People Vote--featuring new sections on public opinion on the Electoral College and proposals for amending the Electoral College system--explains how our system of electing a president works, especially the processes that kick in after the November general election date.

Americans once gathered on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November to pick the nation's leaders. Election Day was a day of civic engagement when neighbors met at the polls and then cast their ballots. In the past twenty-five years, however, America has undergone a revolution in voting unlike anything it has experienced in the first 200 years of its history. We have created a system of many mini-election-days leading up to the main event. Today nearly a quarter of Americans vote before Election Day, either by absentee ballot or at early voting places. In 1980, only one in twenty voters voted before Election Day. What has happened? Has the convenience of absentee or early voting compromised the integrity of the process and weakened a unifying civic experience? In Absentee and Early Voting: Trends, Promises, and Perils, John Fortier documents the dramatic increase in absentee voting and, more recently, the meteoric rise in early voting. He examines the legal and historical reasons for changes in the voting system and the many differences across states. Fortier offers his thoughts about what the changes have meant for the country and where we should go from here.

This volume examines the challenges of winning the White House and becoming president in the twenty-first century. Beginning with the resources candidates must secure to gain their party's nomination, continuing through the general election campaign, and concluding with the challenges that the victor will face upon taking office, From Votes to Victory presents cogent analysis of the path from campaign to governance. In focusing on the 2008 presidential race as a case study of twenty-first century presidential campaigns, the volume offers an early assessment of the structural changes that have reshaped presidential elections and governance in recent years. To address these questions about presidential campaigns and governance in the twenty-first century, the contributors met during a one-day symposium at Hofstra University's Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency on April 3, 2008.|This volume examines the challenges of winning the White House and becoming president in the twenty-first century. Beginning with the resources candidates must secure to gain their party's nomination, continuing through the general election campaign, and concluding with the challenges that the victor will face upon taking office, From Votes to Victory presents cogent analysis of the path from campaign to governance. In focusing on the 2008 presidential race as a case study of twenty-first century presidential campaigns, the volume offers an early assessment of the structural changes that have reshaped presidential elections and governance in recent years. To address these questions about presidential campaigns and governance in the twenty-first century, the contributors met during a one-day symposium at Hofstra University's Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency on April 3, 2008.