As the 2020 presidential campaign begins to take form, there is widespread distrust of the fairness and accuracy of American elections. Within this timely and accessible publication, Richard L. Hasen uses riveting tales illustrating four factors increasing the mistrust. Voter suppression provides escalated like a Republican device aimed to depress turnout of most likely Democratic voters, fueling suspicion. Pouches of incompetence in election administration, frequently in large metropolitan areas controlled by Democrats, possess created an opening to claims of unfairness. Old-fashioned and new-fangled filthy tricks, including international and home misinformation campaigns via social networking, threaten electoral integrity. Inflammatory rhetoric about ‘taken’ elections supercharges distrust among hardcore partisans.

Taking into account how each one of these threats offers manifested in recent years-most notably in the 2016 and 2018 elections-Hasen provides concrete steps that require to be studied to restore trust in American elections prior to the democratic practice is totally undermined.