Some of the nation's leading experts look at various aspects of election administration, including issues of ballot format, changes in registration procedures, the growth in the availability of absentee ballot rules and other forms of 'convenience voting', and changes in the technology used to record our votes. They also look at how the Bush v. Gore decision has been used by courts that monitor the election process and at the consequences of changes in practice for levels of invalid ballots, magnitude of racial disparities in voting, voter turnout, and access to the ballot by those living outside the United States. The editors, in their introduction, also consider the normative question of exactly what we want a voting system to do. An epilogue by two leading election law specialists looks at how election administration and election contest issues played out in the 2012 presidential election.

The new book is the definitive text on the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), providing an easily accessible account of the breadth and depth of experience gained worldwide from its use in a wide range of contexts and in different phases of education. The lessons learned from these diverse experiences are included throughout the text. Used globally in all phases of education in the different healthcare professions, the OSCE was first described by the lead author, Harden, in 1975 and it is now the gold standard for performance assessment. The new book is the definitive text on the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), providing an easily accessible account of the breadth and depth of experience gained worldwide from its use in a wide range of contexts and in different phases of education. The lessons learned from these diverse experiences are included throughout the text. Used globally in all phases of education in the different healthcare professions, the OSCE was first described by the lead author, Harden, in 1975 and it is now the gold standard for performance assessment.

In a study of 45 voters in three geographic locations comparing a ballot with traditional language instructions to a ballot with plain language instructions, the authors collected both performance and preference data. The traditional language was language commonly found in actual ballots across the U.S. A detailed explanation of plain language can be found in the full report. For performance data, participants voted on ballots that differed only in the wording and placement of instructions: Ballot A, traditional instructions; Ballot B, plain language instructions. Half of the participants voted in the order Ballot A / Ballot B; the other half in the order Ballot B / Ballot A. For preference data, after voting both ballots, participants commented on 16 pairs of pages. Illus.