Law and Election Politics The Rules of the Game

Though the courts have been extremely active in interpreting the rules of the electoral game, this role is misunderstood and understudied—as, in many cases, are the rules themselves. Law and Election Politics illustrates how election laws and electoral politics are intertwined, analyzing the rules of the game and some of the most important—and most controversial—decisions the courts have made on a variety of election-related subjects. More than a typical law book that summarizes cases, Mathew Streb has assembled an outstanding group of scholars to place electoral laws and the courts‘ rulings on those laws in the context of electoral politics. They comprehensively cover the range of topics important to election law—campaign finance, political parties, campaigning, redistricting, judicial elections, the Internet, voting machines, voter identification, ballot access, and direct democracy. This is an essential resource both for students of the electoral process and scholars of election law and election reform.

Introduction: Linking Election Law and Electoral Politics, Matthew J. Streb. 1: Campaign Finance Law—The Changing Role of Parties and Interest Groups, Michael M. Franz. 2: Public Financing of Elections—Past, Present, Future, Peter L. Francia. 3: The Internet— The Promise of Democratization of American Politics, Lee E. Goodman. 4: Voting Machines—The Question of Equal Protection, Thad Hall and Lucy Williams. 5: Voter Identification Laws—The Controversy over Voter Fraud, Lorraine C. Minnite. 6: Early Voting: The Quiet Revolution in American Elections, Paul Gronke. 7: Recounts—Elections in Overtime, Edward B. Foley. 8: Direct Democracy—Regulating the "Will of the People," Daniel A. Smith. 9: Political Parties and Primaries—The Tension between Free Association and the Right to Vote, Kristin Kanthak and Eric Loepp. 10: Third Parties—How American Election Law and Institutions Cripple Third Parties, Marjorie Randon Hershey. 11: Redistricting—Racial and Partisan Issues Past and Present, Charles S. Bullock III. 12: Judicial Elections—Just Like Any Other Election, Matthew J. Streb

Matthew J. Streb is Associate Professor of Political Science and chair of the Department of Political Science at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of two books, The New Electoral Politics of Race (University of Alabama, 2002) and Rethinking American Electoral Democracy (Routledge, 2008, 2011). He is the editor of Running for Judge (New York University Press, 2007), Academic Freedom at the Dawn of a New Century (Stanford University Press, 2006), andPolls and Politics (SUNY Press, 2004), and has published numerous articles and book chapters.