Gaming the Vote

With election fever heating up, Gaming the Vote by William Poundstone could be a good book to browse through. Among other theories he propounds, the “spoiler” effect could be something to be aware of in the Uganda milieu.

Here is an extract of the review of the book. You can get the full text from the source below.
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Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do about It)

by William Poundstone

Electoral Knowledge

A review by Gerry Donaghy

While most Americans would characterize our electoral process as "one person, one vote," the route to the White House is considerably byzantine. For example, think of the system of primaries currently happening. I defy the average voter who lives outside of a caucusing state to describe accurately how that process works. As candidates begin to drop out of the race, many voters in states that have yet to hold primaries have lost the chance to vote for these candidates. Why do so-called "super-delegates" exist? Why exactly do we still utilize an archaic institution like the Electoral College?

Election issues get further complicated when you consider that despite protestations to the contrary, America is essentially a two-party state, and attempts by third parties to be elected to pubic office on the national level often lead to failure. More detrimental to the third parties are their effect as spoilers on election. Most recently, Ralph Nader's presence on the presidential ballot in 2000 was viewed by many to have cost Democrat Al Gore the election.

For a complete text of the review go to: http://www.powells.com/review/2008_02_09.html