How We Vote: Innovation in American Elections

How We Vote uses the lens of public administration to examine the conduct of elections and the work of election officials as a contemporary intergovernmental enterprise. Kathleen Hale and Mitchell Brown explore how election officials are innovating to resolve the interconnected management, technological, and political challenges in the more than 8,000 election jurisdictions across the United States. This environment is complex not only because voting practices vary from state to state but because national officials, multiple government agencies, the judicial system, voting equipment vendors, nonprofit groups, and citizen activists also influence practices, boundaries, and possibilities for change. Each topical chapter is grounded in original data gathered from national, state, and local election officials and policymakers across the United States. The topical chapters analyze voter registration, voting options, improvements in voter convenience, support for voting in languages other than English, the integrity of the voting process, and voting system technology to offer a fascinating picture of how we vote now and will do so in the future. The solutions crafted by election administrators illuminate the process of public sector innovation and change.

Kathleen Hale is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University, where she directs its graduate program in election administration. She is the author of the award-winning How Information Matters: Networks and Public Policy Innovation (Georgetown University Press, 2011).

Mitchell Brown is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University and associate editor of the Journal of Political Science Education.

Together, Hale and Brown direct the Election Administration Initiative at Auburn University. They are the coauthors of Applied Research Methods in Public and Nonprofit Organizations and Administering Elections: How American Elections Work with Robert Montjoy. They are coeditors of The Future of Election Administration as well as The Future of Election Administration: Cases and Conversations with Bridgett King.