Cover; Ballot Battles; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgments; Prologue: The Missing Institution of Impartiality; Introduction: Understanding the Past for the Sake of the Future; 1. Uncertain Vote-Counting in the Founding Era; 2. The Novelty of Chief Executive Elections; 3. The Entrenchment of Two-Party Competition; 4. Counting Votes at Times of Crisis; 5. Hayes v. Tilden: To the Edge of the Constitutional Cliff; 6. The Gilded Age: An Era of Hypercompetitive Elections; 7. The Progressive Era: Missed Opportunities at a Time of Reform
8. America in the Middle of Its Century: A Tarnished Ideal9. The Sixties and Their Legacy: The Rise of Democratic Expectations; 10. The Eighties and Nineties: Reemergence of Intensified Partisanship; 11. Florida 2000: Avoiding a Return to the Constitutional Brink; 12. After Bush v. Gore: Reinvigorated Demand for Electoral Fairness; Conclusion: The Enduring Quest for a Fair Count; Appendix: Data on Overtime Elections; Notes; Index
Summary
"The 2000 presidential election, with its problems in Florida, was not the first major vote-counting controversy in the nation's history--nor the last. Ballot Battles traces the evolution of America's experience with these disputes, from 1776 to now, explaining why they have proved persistently troublesome and offering an institutional solution"-- Provided by publisher
