On November 6, 2012, voters went to the polls to vote in the most highly contested (and most expensive) presidential election in U.S. history. There was more attention paid to a few so-called “swing states” than ever before because everyone realized the election would be won or lost in the Electoral College, not in the general election. This book, written by a college professor, analyzes every presidential election in the country’s history with special focus on the role played by the Electoral College. He describes how duels and scandals and wars and secret deals contributed to a win or a loss for presidential candidates throughout U.S. history. Dr. Murdock provides fascinating details about how the Electoral College was created at the 1787 Constitutional Convention as a compromise with the slave states and the smaller-population states, and how it has distorted the election process ever since. He also describes how the election process has evolved, how political parties have learned to target Electoral College votes instead of the popular vote. As he says, targeting swing states has become the “new” way to win presidential elections. In the final chapters, he analyzes, in detail, the presidential election of 2012 and predicts how it will influence all future elections.
