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Voters: From Primaries to Decision Night

Lerner’s Inside Elections series is a timely look into how political parties, special interests, voters and the media function around elections in the United States. The book Voters: From Primaries to Decision Night by Robert Grayson details how voting works; primaries, caucuses and conventions; the campaign and voters; the electoral college; election day promises and problems; and counting the vote. This is 58 packed pages explained in an easy to understand, conversational tone for students. For example, Grayson writes “You may be thinking, ‘Wait a minute, I thought elections were decided directly by ordinary voters, not by special super-voters’” (34). He goes on to detail how the nation’s founders had a very different United States in terms of population, communication, and education level. Thus the electoral college, though it might be outdated today, was a justifiable means to get a more perfect end. Page layout, sidebars and graphics help make these classic ideas even more interesting. If your collection’s book on these topics are shabby, this is a really nice collection that will be worth adding this fall.