The primary focus in Chapter 7 is election administration, which includes ballot contents (e.g., what name a candidate could use on the ballot and additional information that should or could appear on the ballot such as incumbency status of a candidate), ballot form or format (retention or contested), scheduling issues, validity of the election, and a range of other issues. The chapter concludes with a relatively brief discussion of election contests, including type of election being contested (partisan or nonpartisan, primary or general), and the issue raised in the contest; two of the cases involved name issues raised after the election, one a name change and the other the use of the candidate’s birth name rather than her married name.

This chapter provides and overview of the book and uses the case of the 2013 election reform bill in North Carolina to illustrate the key arguments of the manuscript.Partisan majorities in states often change laws regarding the ballot format to help them remain in power.This chapter also describes the basic ballot types used in the U.S. and summarizes the findings of each chapter.