I have received a signed copy of Equal Voice Voting Making Our Votes Count in the Electoral College by Jerry Spriggs. The book proposes a modified Electoral College, named Equal Voice that “combines the power of the popular vote while retaining an equal representation of every state in the country.” The book draws data from the Atlas for use in analysis – the Acknowledgements state “It would not have happened without the ready reference and data gleaned from Dave Leip’s Atlas of Presidential Elections data (https://uselectionatlas.org)”. I’m always happy to see (and receive) examples of the site’s application!

Some more description of the book on Amazon: “The current U.S. presidential election process, known as the Electoral College, needs to be modified. Only a minority of our nation’s voters are actually represented in the Electoral College in its current form. Because of the low voter representation, our citizens are not encouraged to vote; a state of apathy is prevalent in the very process designed to choose our nation’s leader. Voters are discouraged and our democracy suffers. Something must change! Equal Voice Voting is a new presidential election method that modifies the Electoral College. Equal Voice Voting gives both the popular as well as the geographic representation needed to allow everyone an equal voice in our presidential elections. It eliminates the winner-take-all approach, giving every political party an opportunity to be represented in every presidential election. This book discusses other voting alternatives, such as the National Popular Voting bill and the option of relying on voting by congressional districts…”

The latest book to incorporate material from the Atlas is Anthony Fairfax’s The Democratic Trend Phenomena. The paperback book is an analytical work with a decent amount of statistical mathematics with the goal of proving a predictable trend in the popular vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate.

From the Author: “The goal of forecasting the outcome of U.S. presidential elections has been around for decades. However, the belief is that predicting, especially the popular vote, with a high degree of accuracy is difficult due to different national or even local conditions that change with each election (e.g. economic, social, political, and global changes).”

“Nonetheless, over the last three decades there exists a little known exception to the rule pertaining to forecasting presidential elections. The exception is that the popular vote for the Democratic candidate for president has trended in a predictable pattern since 1980. If the election of 1976 is disregarded the trend is revealed to actually begin in 1972.”

“This unique predictability has been deemed by the author as, The Democratic Trend Phenomena. This book describes the cause of the phenomena, measures the accuracy, and outlines the future effects.”

On the acknowledgements on page ix: “Additional thanks to David Leip who provided critical election data during the development of this book”

The book sells on Amazon for $10.17.

I was contacted by Dick Stoken last summer with a request for permission to use some of the data presented on uselectionatlas.org in his new book, The Great Game of Politics – Why We Elect Whom We Elect. I gladly granted and received my copy of the book this week. I’ll comment after I finish reading it. If you like, you can get a copy from Barnes & Noble

My first book contribution is now out! I was contacted last February by M. E. Sharpe about supplying election data for their new publication, American Presidential Campaigns and Elections, a three volume reference set (Edited by: William G. Shade; Ballard C. Campbell; Craig R. Coenen, Documents Editor). I just received my copy last week. Its a nice reference; each chapter covers one election, including an overview of the issues and campaign, text of speeches, results maps, and the data!

The description of the content is as follows: “Presidential campaigns and elections provide the drama and substance of America’s democratic process. As democracy in action, they punctuate our nation’s history in precise intervals, capturing the issues, the ideas, and the mood of the nation every four years. Every campaign follows a similar format: candidates jockey for selection, nominations are made, candidates and party leaders hit the trail, and voters render their decision on election day. Yet despite this familiar process, every campaign is unique, featuring colorful personalities and unexpected events.

This fully illustrated reference is packed with facts and information on every campaign from the election of 1788-89 through the hotly contested election of 2000. Each entry traces in detail the background and results of the election, and the set features hundreds of rarely seen documents associated with the campaigns.”

The target customer for the reference set is libraries -> as its hefty price of $325 is beyond what most people are willing to pay for a copy at home. Purchase of the three-volume set is presently only possilbe through M. E. Sharpe directly. You can see an overview of the set and purchase directly from them at this link.