This just came across my desk. Rep. Steve Israel (NY-02) has introduced legislation to create an American Democracy Index that is built on the research of Heather Gerken at Yale. We recently published her book-length argument on the need to gather information about how we vote and create a national ranking system so states can assess election reforms that work.

News Release 111-076

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 6, 2009

For more information, contact:

Lindsay Hamilton 202-225-3335

lindsay.hamilton@mail.house.gov

News Release

Reps. Israel Announces Legislation to Assess and Improve Election Systems Across the Country

The American Democracy Index will analyze voter and election administration data to publish a state-by-state analysis of practices prior to the 2012 elections

Washington, DC – On Friday, Rep. Steve Israel (D – New York) announced new legislation to assess and improve election systems throughout the country.  The American Democracy Index Act (H.R.4033) seeks to improve election administration throughout the United States by ranking states on election performance and comparing best and worst practices.

“For too many Americans, our election system is marred by long lines, lost ballots and controversial recounts. Our elections should be conducted in a way that makes Americans want to vote. It should be easy, expedient and accurate. The American Democracy Index will tell us where we’re succeeding and where we’re failing so that we can make improvements based on what works,” said Rep. Israel.

“The American election system remains deeply flawed, even after the debacle of 2000 and the Help America Vote Act that followed. Fixing the system requires real knowledge about what is working and what isn’t,” said Norm Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute scholar and Co-Director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. “A great first step would be a Democracy Index that requires good data from all states and localities to analyze the problems, and an ability to rank jurisdictions according to whether they are serving democracy by running elections well, or falling short of their peers and of any reasonable standards. Steve Israel has been a leader in pushing for ways to make the American election system the model it should be; this bill is another solid step in that direction.”

“Access to accurate information is the first requirement of good policy-making,” said Trevor Potter, a former Republican Chairman of the Federal Election Commission who now heads the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center.  “This bill will mandate that the government obtain and publish the best information that can be gathered about the functioning of our election system–and every political party should agree that is a very good and important thing to do.”

During the 2000 election, between 1.5 and 3 million votes were lost because of the registration process. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, about 1 million registered voters said they did not vote because polling lines were too long or polling hours were too short. Following the 2004 presidential election, 43 percent of local officials surveyed reported that an electronic voting system had malfunctioned.

The American Democracy Index Act requires that the Election Assistance Commission contract with an entity to collect voter data and publish the American Democracy Index for the federal election cycle of 2012. The American Democracy Index (ADI) will present voter and election administration data on a state-by-state basis in a manner designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of election administration practices. States will be ranked according to criteria established by an independent advisory board of election administration experts in consultation with the Election Assistance Commission. The legislation also establishes a pilot program for the 2010 federal election cycle to create an index that ranks localities within five states to measure the effectiveness of their election administration.

The concept is based on a proposal that Yale Law School Professor Heather Gerken wrote about in her book, The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System Is Failing and How to Fix It. She argues that a “Democracy Index” – a public ranking of election performances around the country – would encourage states to take real steps to make voting easier.

The bill also authorizes funding to assist states with reporting requirements.

Rep. Israel is a leader in the House of Representatives on election reform. In the 110^th and 111^th Congress, he introduced the Weekend Voting Act which seeks to move Election Day from Tuesday to the weekend in an effort to increase voter participation.

Rep. Israel serves on the House Appropriations Committee.

Happy to report that the first copies of our Spring 2010 catalogs just hit our desks this afternoon. Soon the books will be added to the Web site and we’ll post a link.

“It’s generally taken for granted that some familiarity with economists’ research is relevant to writing about economic issues, but people seem very comfortable making broad, sweeping assertions about the American political system that are totally uninformed by research into it,” writes Matthew Yglesias on his blog.

He notes that “empirical and theoretical inquiry by political scientists can and does shed a lot of light on a lot of important issues,” and recommends Princeton Readings in American Politics, edited by Richard Valelly, to “anyone interested in deepening their understanding of American politics.”

Mark Kleiman, author of WHEN BRUTE FORCE FAILS, recently appeared in Washington, D.C., to discuss the ideas in his book on Capitol Hill, with Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, and at the American Enterprise Institute, with James Q. Wilson, among others. You can catch a video of the appearance at AEI here.

In addition, Kleiman was interviewed on “On Point,” the NPR show that airs from WBUR in Boston. Click here to hear the interview on “On Point.”

And finally, Kleiman spoke in detail about the new book with Larry Mantle, host of “Air Talk” on KPCC, the NPR station in Southern California. Listen here.

Listen in to Steve Strogatz discussing his friendship with his high school mathematics teacher Don Joffray on WNYC’s RadioLab. Their relationship was conducted mostly by letters and shared love of mathematical problems. As WNYC notes, “Steve explains how numbers can connect you and where they fall short.”

Also, WNYC linked through to this video of Steve making a presentation. It is very touching and shows lots of the letters.

David Vine, author of Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia appeared on Democracy NOW! with Olivier Bancoult, leader of the Chagos refugees.   Speaking of the fate of his people’s culture, Bancoult said “They just want to destroy it. This is why it’s so important for us to have our dignity and our fundamental rights back as all human beings to be able to live in our birthplace.”

David Vine has been working hard to make their story known.

How long would it take to fall through the Earth and land on the other side?

Listen in to the latest podcast of The Math Factor for an interview with Paul Nahin who is a frequent PUP author. In this segment he is discussing his most recent book Mrs. Perkins’s Electric Quilt. And yes — he has the answer to the question above.

We’re thrilled that The Math Factor had Paul on, and look forward to their upcoming interview with Mythematics author, Mike Huber, too.

Not only are the staff of PUP’s European office fortunate enough to have an office right outside the grounds of Blenheim Palace, but since May 2008 we’ve had the excellent Woodstock Bookshop right across the road.

The building itself is reassuringly old and creaky, as all good bookshops should be, unlike the purpose-built industrial estate warehouses that typify the big chains these days. The interior is newly fitted to take full advantage of the limited floorspace, so with wall-to-wall books, there’s always something interesting on offer. The shop is rightly devoted to books rather than coffee and trinkets, and is so tiny that only one chair could be crammed into a corner for those who like to try before they buy.

The packed children’s section in the back occupies about a third of the shop, and the shop’s owner Rachael Phipps is as happy to dispense advice on kid’s titles as she is on Birdscapes and Hezbollah (both of which she’s placed in the window, presumably to keep the Press staff happy as we wait at the bus stop outside).

What I really like about this tiny bookshop, though, is the fact that there’s rarely more than one copy of any given book on the shelves. Browsing through the titles, you frequently feel as if you’ve spotted a rare gem, and – canny sales technique, this – I usually end up with a stack of books to take home because I can’t bear the feeling that I might be missing something brilliant. This is really where Rachael has the advantage over the giant bookshops in Oxford, where multiple copies will be heaped up all over the place on 3-for-2. And besides, if you really need a coffee, there’s always Blenheim Palace round the corner.

Princeton University Press was proud to assist the Center for the Study of Books and Media at Princeton University with a recent afternoon round-table on book reviews. The editorial panels attracted a stellar international group including Sam Tanenhaus of the New York Times Book Review, Sir Peter Stothard of the TLS, Jessa Crispin of Bookslut.com, and Steve Wasserman, formerly of the LA Times and now moonlighting as the book reviews editor for the influential site truthdig.com.  While the reviewers for the second panel were Joan Acocella who focuses on dance criticism, but also reviews books and makes weekly contributions to the Critic’s Notebook at The New Yorker, Jill Lepore, historian extraordinaire and Critic at Large for The New Yorker, Michael Dirda who continues to contribute a weekly column on books for the Washington Post in spite of the loss of the Book World earlier this year, and Mark Greif who acts as both editor and writer for the new(ish) magazine N+1.

These panels represented a perfect blend of print and new media, scholarly and popular, established and growing, so it was appropriate that the discussions focused on precisely these kinds of issues. Are print and new media incompatible? Is print truly on its way out? Does the New York Times Book Review have an obligation to review not only “important” works of literature, but also works important because of their cultural significance (see Maureen Dowd’s review of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol which led to quite a heated exchange)? How does the TLS continue to attract new readers while offering thousands of reviews–many of them on impenetrable books on impenetrable subjects? And is there room for new magazines like bookslut.com or N+1?

It was heartening to see the campus support for the book review. Attendees included the expected–acclaimed scholars (and frequent book review writers) like Peter Brooks and Sean Wilentz, as well as PUP staffers from the editorial, marketing, and sales departments–but there were also many students armed with notebooks and provocative questions. Provocative (sometimes pointed) questions that led the way in a wonderful discussion about the centrality of good book reviews and literary criticism to our culture.

Here, you can read Sir Peter Stothard’s thoughts on the panels.

It is with great pride we congratulate Elinor Ostrom, co-winner, with Oliver Williamson, of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics and author of the Princeton University Press book UNDERSTANDING INSTITUTIONAL DIVERSITY.  And I hear through the grapevine that we have another project of hers coming out in the not-to-distant future.  Stay tuned!

Congratulations, again, Elinor!

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