This book provides a highly accessible history of the Electoral College. It analyzes every presidential election in U.S. history, providing fascinating details about national and international events that played a role in determining who would be president. The author reveals how the election process has evolved over time and how political parties learned to target Electoral College votes to win presidential elections.

In his discussion of the upcoming 2012 presidential campaign between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, Professor Murdock looks at historical voting patterns and current polling results to predict state by state results. His conclusion is that Obama will win the popular vote by a large margin but lose in the Electoral College, just as Al Gore won the general election in 2000 by 543,895 votes, but didn't get to be president.