Over the last year, North Dakota Quarterly has begun to experiment with how it publishes. First came an expanded web presence, then came an effort at making available the digital archive, to reprint some of historically significant content from NDQ and to create online anthologies of important authors and topics of emphasis for the Quarterly over time.

Now, we’re shifting a little bit and experimenting with a collaboration between NDQ and The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota to release a short, digital, open-access book that pulls together over a dozen short articles and historical documents on a very current issue: the Electoral College.

Picking the President: Understanding the Electoral College
Edited by Eric Burin

The 2016 presidential election has sparked an unprecedented interest in the Electoral College. In response to Donald Trump winning the presidency despite losing the popular vote, numerous individuals have weighed in with letters-to-the-editor, op-eds, blog posts, videos, and the like, and thanks to the revolution in digital communications, these items have reached an exceptionally wide audience. In short, never before have so many people had so much to say about the Electoral College.

To facilitate and expand the conversation, Picking the President: Understanding the Electoral College offers brief essays that examine the Electoral College from different disciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, mathematics, political science, history, and pedagogy. Along the way, the essays address a variety of questions about the Electoral College: Why was it created? How has it changed over time? Who benefits from it? Is it just? How will future demographic patterns affect it? Should we alter or abolish the Electoral College, and if so, what should replace it? In exploring these matters, Picking the President enhances our understanding of one of America’s most high-profile, momentous issues.

Get the book (and read more about it) here! It’s FREE and open access. Download it, read it, share it!