Research Catalog
Gaming the vote : why elections aren't fair (and what we can do about it)
- Title
- Gaming the vote : why elections aren't fair (and what we can do about it) / William Poundstone.
- Author
- Poundstone, William.
- Publication
- New York : Hill and Wang, 2008.
- Supplementary Content
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | JK1976 .P68 2008 | Off-site |
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Details
- Description
- xii, 338 pages : illustrations; 24 cm
- Summary
- "At least five U.S. presidential elections have been won by the second most popular candidate, but these results were not inevitable casualties of the American voting system. In fact, such an unfair outcome need never happen again: as William Poundstone shows in Gaming the Vote, the solution is lurking right under our noses." "In all five cases, the vote was upset by a "spoiler" - a minor candidate who took enough votes away from the most popular candidate to tip the election to someone else. The answer to the spoiler problems lies in a system called range voting, which would satisfy both right and left. Already widely used on the Internet, range voting is the fairest voting method of all, according to computer studies. Despite these findings, range voting remains controversial, and Gaming the Vote assesses the obstacles confronting any attempt to change the U.S. electoral system. The latest of several books by William Poundstone on the ways in which important scientific ideas have affected the real world, Gaming the Vote is both a wry expose of how the political system really works and a call to action."--BOOK JACKET.
- Subject
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [313]-324) and index.
- Contents
- Prologue : the wizard and the lizard -- The problem -- 1. Game theory -- 2. The Big Bang -- 3. A short history of vote splitting -- 4. The most evil man in America -- 5. Run, Ralph, run! -- 6. Year of the spoiler -- The solution -- 7. Trouble in Kiribati -- 8. The new belfry -- 9. Instant runoff -- 10. Who's afraid of the big bad cycle? -- 11. Buckley and the clones -- 12. Bad Santa -- 13. Last man standing -- 14. Hot or not? -- 15. Present but not voting -- The reality -- 16. The way democracy will be -- 17. Blue man coup.
- ISBN
- 9780809048939 (hardcover : alk. paper)
- 0809048930 (hardcover : alk. paper)
- LCCN
- 2007036770
- 40015165558
- OCLC
- 156818830
- ocn156818830
- SCSB-5395484
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries