The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System Is Failing and How to Fix It

(Princeton University Press)

The author diagnoses what is wrong with our election system and proposes a first step toward reform: creating a democracy index that would rank states and localities based on how well they run elections. Akin to the U.S. News & World Report rankings of colleges, the democracy index would focus on problems such as how long voters wait in line, how many ballots get discarded, and how often voting machines break down. Gerken is a professor at Yale Law School.