The Politics of Ballot Design

Erik J. Engstrom is Professor of Political Science at University of California, Davis. He is the author or co-author of three books–most recently Race, Class, and Social Welfare: American Populism since the New Deal (2020). He was the co-winner of the 2015 J. David Greenstone Prize for best book in Politics and History from the American Political Science Association. Jason M. Roberts is Professor of Political Science at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author or co-author of three books, including The American Congress (2019) and Ambition, Competition, and Electoral Reform (2013).

'Erik Engstrom and Jason Roberts have written the definitive modern study of the politics of ballot design in the United States. Ballot design laws are intensely fought over in state legislatures, and they have consequences for election outcomes. This book deftly combines historical and modern statistical analysis that will be of great interest to both the academic researchers, students of election science, election administrators, and those who influence the laws by which we mark our ballots.' Charles Stewart III, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• 1. Introduction; 2. How the ballot 'Nudges' voters; 3. Ballot architecture in the progressive era; 4. The personal vote era, 1940–2000; 5. Ballot architecture in the contemporary partisan era; 6. Reconsidering the American ballot; Bibliography; Index.