The History and Politics of Voting Technology: In Quest of Integrity and Public Confidence [Hardcover]

Saltman traces the evolution of voting technology in the USA, from voice to digital, highlighting how the antiquated systems in use today are a legacy of the industrial revolution of the Nineteenth-century and the early computer revolution of the 1950s and analyses the current day situation.The 2000 Presidential Election in Florida: The Family Secret is Exposed From Revolution Through Reconstruction The Gilded Age and the Adoption of the Secret Ballot The Voting Machine in the Progressive Era The Computer Age Failed Federalism Fueled the Florida Fiasco Post-Florida Actions and the Future Conclusions

For a quarter century Roy Saltman has been the world's most knowledgeable expert about modern voting machines, warts and all. In The History and Politics of Voting Technology, Saltman shares this knowledge with us and demonstrates that the history of voting technology is more than it seems. Bound up in the story of voting machines are stories as old as America itself, including our endless fascination with technology as a panacea and our conflicting (and ultimately irreconcilable) visions about how to protect and extend democracy in America. This is a must-read for those interested in the politics of election reform and in how technology and politics intersect in the United States.

- Charles Stewart, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Saltman's detailed description of the history of voting technology helps readers to understand why the election disaster of Florida, 2000 occurred. Saltman reveals how the federal and state government's lack of concern about the development or consequences of voting technology, despite the central importance of elections to a democratic system, contributed to erosion of public confidence in the integrity of elections. This work is a major contribution to current and future debates about how to improve the American electoral system.

- Richard G. Smolka, Editor, Election Al3.