Books
Coming in 2025: Invisible Democracy
What if the way we vote is the reason our democracy feels broken? Invisible Democracy runs through the stories and data of our elections to tell how voting methods quietly shape the formation of our government—and how simple changes can put the voters back in charge.
Most people don’t think about how they vote: pick one candidate, cast your ballot, done. But this "choose-one" system distorts outcomes and sidelines fresh voices. No wonder elections feel frustrating and unfair.
There’s a better way. Approval voting lets you vote for every candidate you support, giving a clearer picture of how voters really feel. This voting method addresses vote-splitting, encourages new voices, and provides an opportunity for consensus candidates to thrive. Cities like Fargo and St. Louis have already started using it—and it could reshape democracy nationwide and beyond.
Excerpt:
Author’s Note: Who This Book Is For (And Who It Isn’t)
This book isn’t for everyone—but if you care about democracy and want to see it function, then you’re in the right place. I wrote this for those who still hold out hope, not because they’re naïve, but because the stakes are too high to give up. This book probably isn’t for you if you see democracy as a tool to serve only your ideology, prefer feel-good reforms that don’t change anything, or take your political group’s views as gospel. There are plenty of other books out there that will reinforce your thinking without really challenging you.
This book also isn’t for you if you think we somehow perfected everything about voting hundreds of years ago. You may also find this book challenging if you’re already won over by ranked-choice/instant runoff voting. I once supported instant runoff voting myself, so I get it. But I’ve since taken a deeper dive into the data—and the flaws are hard to ignore. Don’t worry, though. I’ll show you a simpler, more effective alternative called approval voting that lets you pick all the candidates you want. And by the end of this book, you’ll see why it works.
So if you’re willing to critically engage and explore new ways of thinking about our elections, then keep reading. This will be worth your time.
What This Book Promises
At minimum, this book will do what the subtitle suggests: demystify how voting methods shape our elections.
A voting method has two parts:
What you put on the ballot—whether it’s picking one, ranking, scoring, or choosing multiple candidates.
How those choices are counted—runoff simulations, simple addition, averaging, or inferring head-to-head matchups.
This book will help you understand the role of voting methods, including our current choose-one system, and how letting voters approve all the candidates they like on their ballot (again, not ranked choice) can fundamentally improve elections—for everyone—in a way we've only just begun to see.
What You’ll Learn
How voting methods shape democracy—and how "choose-one voting" sets us up for failure.
When real-world elections have gone wrong—and the simple voting method fixes that could have changed history.
How to think about voting methods and what makes one better than another.
How approval voting can make elections fairer and give you a stronger voice—not by involved rankings but by simply letting you approve all the candidates you wish.
How approval voting emerged and is now being used in government elections.
Why the more complicated instant runoff voting/ranked-choice voting isn’t the right reform, how it’s not just failing but actively sidelining better reforms.
How primaries and multi-winner proportional systems are part of the bigger picture.
How voting method reforms actually get implemented and what you can do.
How This Book Is Written
When I look at problems, particularly complex ones like this one, I tend to look at the problem systemically and ask fundamental questions. This book takes that same approach. While this book is technical, I promise to keep it accessible—without talking down to you.
If anything seems tricky, stick with it—it’ll be worth it. I’m going in assuming you don’t know anything. As evidence of that, look at the section above on what this book promises. See? I didn’t even assume you knew what a voting method was. I’m fine holding your hand. I had to learn this at some point too. You don’t need to be a political scientist or mathematician to follow this book. But you do need curiosity and a willingness to think critically.
I’m not here to overwhelm you with theory or abstract models, although we will cover a lot. My goal is for you to leave this book understanding not just how different voting methods work, but why they matter and what we can do about them.
Why You Should Listen to Me
For over a decade, I’ve been on the front lines of voting reform—helping cities adopt approval voting and pioneering research on better voting methods. What took me years to learn, you’ll get in the time it takes you to turn the pages of this book. And if you too work in this space, I’m confident you’ll still pick up many nuggets along the way, even if it’s just that you look at some problems differently. You will certainly read some interesting stories!
Worried About Partisanship?
Elections are inherently partisan, even if there aren’t party labels. We have different ways of looking at the world—all of us. And that’s okay. In fact, it’s good.
But this is not a partisan book. If anything, this is an anti-partisan book. Do I have political opinions? Of course I do. Probably well more than average. Are some of those political opinions different from yours? Of course they are. If we were all identical, democracy would be much easier to navigate.
This book will take swings at every party—even third parties and political groups. Major parties will take the most heat, however. There’s no vendetta here. They just tend to use their power to stack the deck in their favor—at the expense of everyone else. It’s fine if you’re empathetic with your group, but I just ask that you not reflexively close the book when they take their turn. I don’t know when your order will come up.
Go Time
If all that checks out and you’re on board, then I’m excited to share the world of voting methods with you. Few issues shape democracy more than the way we vote. Because if we get that wrong—if we fail at the most basic function of choosing our leaders—then everything else is at risk. Voting methods aren’t just a bureaucratic detail. They determine who governs our lives and whether our system even works. It’s time we stop treating them as an afterthought. We must instead demand better.
Early Table of Contents
If you’ve ever felt like elections don’t represent you, Invisible Democracy will show you how to change the game—and why it starts with rethinking the ballot.
Sign up below for updates and other early access to this groundbreaking book and related work!
For media, sponsoring the book via my fellowship, and other requests, visit the contact page.