2008, Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It). By William Poundstone. (ISBN: 0809048930 / 0-8090-4893-0)

Book Description: Hill & Wang Pub, New York, New York, U.S.A., 2008. Stated First Edition 2008, number line on copyright page reads 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2. Dark Gray Hard Cover Boards and Black Spine with Silver Text. This is a First Edition remainder book which is new and never used. 338 pages, B&W illustrations, 6.125" x 9.25" tall, 1" thick. New copy - Never read - Not price clipped. Beautiful copy of book and dust jacket. COLLECTOR'S COPY.

Book Condition: Brand New.

Dust Jacket Condition: Brand New. NON price-clipped DJ [$25.00 US].

About This Book: At least five U.S. presidential elections have been won by the second most popular candidate. The reason was a spoiler--a minor candidate who takes enough votes away from the most popular candidate to tip the election to someone else. The spoiler effect is more than a glitch. It is a consequence of one of the most surprising intellectual discoveries of the twentieth century: the impossibility theorem of Nobel laureate economist Kenneth Arrow. The impossibility theorem asserts that voting is fundamentally unfair--a finding that has not been lost on today's political consultants. Armed with polls, focus groups, and smear campaigns, political strategists are exploiting the mathematical faults of the simple majority vote. In recent election cycles, this has led to such unlikely tactics as Republicans funding ballot drives for Green spoilers and Democrats paying for right-wing candidates' radio ads. Gaming the Vote shows that there is a solution to the spoiler problem that will satisfy both right and left. A system called range voting, already widely used on the Internet, 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 American electoral system. The latest of several books by William Poundstone on the theme of how important scientific ideas have affected the real world, Gaming the Vote is a wry exposé of how the political system really works, and a call to action. 

Synopsis: Offers a critical assessment of fundamental flaws in the American electoral system, looking at how a minor "spoiler" candidate can affect the election by taking enough votes away from the most popular candidate to tip the election to another, and proposes a simple but fair solution designed to transform the electoral system.

About The Author: William Poundstone is an American author, columnist, and skeptic. He has written a number of books including the Big Secrets series and a biography of Carl Sagan. He is a cousin of comedian Paula Poundstone.

An enthusiast of Harry Stephen Keeler, he maintains the Keeler homepage and contributed to the anthology A to Izzard: A Harry Stephen Keeler Companion (2002).

Bibliography:

• Big Secrets: The Uncensored Truth About All Sorts of Stuff You Are Never Supposed to Know (1983)
• The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge (1984)
• Bigger Secrets: More Than 125 Things They Prayed You'd Never Find Out (1986)
• Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge (1988)
• The Ultimate: The Great Armchair Debates Settled Once and for All (1990)
• Prisoner's Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb (1992)
• Biggest Secrets: More Uncensored Truth About All Sorts of Stuff You Are Never Supposed to Know (1993)
• Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos (1999)
• The Big Book of Big Secrets (2001) reprints Big Secrets and Biggest Secrets
• How Would You Move Mount Fuji? : Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle—How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers (2003)
• Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street (2005)
• Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It) (2008)
• Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) (2010)