Green Books Campaign: *An Election For the Ages*

This review is part of the Green Books Campaign.Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco- friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris’ website.

Participating bloggers were invited to select one of 200 books to discuss on the day of the campaign; here’s the one I chose, which was provided to me by the publisher.

An Election for the Ages: Rossi Vs. Gregoire, 2004
Trova Heffernan
Washington State University (2010), Paperback (ISBN 0874223040 / 9780874223040)
Nonfiction (politics/current events), 168 pages
This book was printed on FSC-certified paper.

Book description (from the publisher): As they voted in the November 2004 election, Washington State citizens were unaware that they were launching a stunning and controversial political episode. The chaotic primary, a public equally divided between two candidates, the soaring voter turnout, and the timing of Election Day all collided, creating the closest ballot result for any governor’s race in American history. Never before had an election for a statewide office required two recounts. In another first, litigation followed, calling into question the integrity and accuracy of the entire voting process. Whether Dino Rossi or Christine Gregoire would claim victory was finally decided in June of 2005. Out of 2.8 million votes cast, the winning margin—after the initial tally, a re-total by machine, and ultimately a manual recount—was a razor-thin 133 votes. Written from the perspective of the Office of Secretary of State, An Election for the Ages offers a chronological profile of these dramatic events.

Comments: When I was invited to participate in this year’s Green Books Campaign, I really wasn’t certain I’d accept. I’m somewhat selfish in my book blogging; I don’t accept books unless they sincerely interest me in some fashion, and it took some time reviewing the list of available books before I found one whose subject matter appealed to me and wasn’t already spoken for by another blogger!

However, although I’m not a resident of Washington State - I’ve never even visited - my inner political junkie was intrigued by this title, and I was reading the book during last week’s midterm elections and the discussion of their outcome. An Election for the Ages was exceedingly timely and very informative.

Trova Heffernan, the writer of An Election for the Ages, was part of the Washington Secretary of State’s staff during the period described in the book, and she provides a genuine insider’s look at one of the most controversial political contests of recent years, the 2004 Washington gubernatorial race. This one makes Bush/Gore 2000 look like a student-council election. In a too-close-to-call contest that went through weeks of recounts, court challenges, and a movement to chuck the whole thing and hold a re-vote, the margin separating candidates Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi was, at times, less than 100 votes, and the lead swung back and forth several times as successive recounts yielded changed returns.

The book is styled as a text, with endnotes, appendices, and sidebar discussions; while it’s also fairly brief, I was a little apprehensive that it would be dry reading. The writing is almost journalistic in the details, but it’s also very direct and straightforward; more importantly, the story it tells fascinated me, and I read it as quickly as I could. While I knew the outcome, I was anxious to see how it all happened - as I’ve said before, I’m not spoiler-phobic. But I am interested in the political process and how elections actually work, and I’m inclined to think some of the practices and issues described here aren’t unique to Washington. While I love being a mail-in voter here in California, mailed-in ballots are one of the things that can complicate the accurate and timely counting of all votes cast in an election. Unclear or out-of-date laws regulating how elections are conducted may be another complication. And regardless of where you vote, this story illustrates that partisan politics create plenty of complications of their own, sometimes in unexpected places.

An Election for the Ages was an enlightening, surprisingly engaging read that would never have caught my attention if not for Eco-Libris and the Green Books Campaign.

Recommended for: nonfiction readers, history buffs, and political junkies