Understanding Election Law is an excellent supplement to any casebook in election law and a concise but thorough treatise. It is designed to provide students in law, political science, and other fields with a coherent, detailed, and accessible introduction to (or review of) election law. As a study aid, the text helps students synthesize and apply doctrine to typical problems and situations faced by practicing attorneys and policymakers. As a treatise, this book also assists scholars and practicing lawyers in understanding the complex statutes and cases that comprise “election law.”

This treatise explains election-law doctrine while also introducing the theoretical concerns that underlie the debates. Readers will come away from Understanding Election Law knowing not only the holdings of cases and the meanings of important statutes, such as the Voting Rights Act, but they will also understand the contending views of free speech, equality, judicial authority, and political fairness that are present throughout the field.

Understanding Election Law takes readers through the electoral process, beginning with the right to vote and continuing through the election itself. Along the way, the authors provide thorough explanations of manifold topics, including Congress’s power to protect voting rights, the use of race in districting, political gerrymandering, political parties’ rights, the place of third parties, free speech and the First Amendment rights to participate in campaigns and run for office, campaign-finance regulation, vote-counting, and the role of courts in adjudicating disputes about political power and challenges to election “irregularities.” Throughout the text, the authors explain election-law concepts in language that is easy to understand, even for readers without a background in constitutional law or political science.