Reading list · 8 books
How elections work
The Electoral College argued from both sides, plus polling, turnout and the fights over voting rules.
Paid links. If you buy a book through these links, Bookshop.org pays us a small commission and sends a share of the sale to independent bookstores.
-
Why We Need the Electoral College (opens Bookshop.org)
Tara Ross · 2019
Lawyer Tara Ross defends the Electoral College as a design that protects federalism and pushes candidates to build broad coalitions, and explains how the Framers built it.
-
Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America (opens Bookshop.org)
George C. Edwards III · 2019
Political scientist George Edwards argues for replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote, and walks through how it works and which states and candidates it favors.
-
The Signal and the Noise (opens Bookshop.org)
Why So Many Predictions Fail but Some Don't
Nate Silver · 2012
Nate Silver, who ran the FiveThirtyEight forecasts, explains how polling averages and models work and where forecasters in politics and other fields go wrong.
-
The Victory Lab (opens Bookshop.org)
The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns
Sasha Issenberg · 2012
Journalist Sasha Issenberg reports on how campaigns began running randomized experiments and microtargeting voters, from get-out-the-vote tests to the data operations of the Obama years.
-
The Gamble (opens Bookshop.org)
Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election
John Sides and Lynn Vavreck · 2013
Political scientists John Sides and Lynn Vavreck use polling and economic data to show how much fundamentals and how little campaign events moved the 2012 result.
-
Identity Crisis (opens Bookshop.org)
The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America
John Sides, Michael Tesler and Lynn Vavreck · 2018
Three political scientists use survey data to explain how the 2016 election turned on identity and attitudes about race and immigration, and how the campaign shaped that.
-
Democracy for Realists (opens Bookshop.org)
Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government
Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels · 2016
Political scientists Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels review decades of voting research and argue that voters choose on group loyalty more than policy, with consequences for accountability.
-
The Voting Wars (opens Bookshop.org)
From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown
Richard L. Hasen · 2012
Election law scholar Richard Hasen traces fights over voter ID, registration, ballot counting and fraud claims since Florida in 2000, and how each party's claims have shaped the rules.
Chosen by Unbiasable. No publisher pays for a place on this list. Updated September 2026.
More from the shelf
Every side, every morning
Books give you the long view. The brief gives you today.
Each morning the brief lays the day’s news across all ten worldviews, in each camp’s own words. Free.
Free to start. No spin. No yelling.
$5/month, cancel anytime. Secure on Stripe, and nothing is ever paywalled.
One-time, secure on Stripe. No account.