America is an outlier in the world of democracies when it comes to the structure and conduct of elections.

Presidents are elected not by direct popular vote but by 538 members of the Electoral College.

In addition to the decline in competition, American politics today is characterized by a growing ideological polarization between the two major political parties.

But presidential approval also became a surrogate measure of national unity and patriotism.

Knowledge of the soul would unfailingly make us melancholy if the pleasures of expression did not keep us alert and of good cheer.

We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way.

Responsibility for overseeing the implementation of election law typically resides with partisan officials, many with public stakes in the election outcome.

A healthy degree of party unity among Democrats and Republicans has deteriorated into bitter partisan warfare.

Congress requires states to draw single-member districts.

While Republican voters have remained universally supportive of their President, Democrats and Independents are returning to a more naturally critical stance.

Votes in federal elections are cast and counted in a highly decentralized and variable fashion, with no uniform ballots and few national standards.

Step One: Grab Mattie. Step Two: Run. It wasn't much of a plan. But what it lacked in potential it made up for in simplicity.

It's hard to not worry, because trying not to worry reminds me that I should be worried

I'm so tired I never want to wake up again. But I've figured out now that it was never them that made me feel that way. It was just me, all along.

Life is the greatest chance that has been given to all of us. So how do you choose to live your life? You’ve got a pen. Write it down.

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?

I was running since I was 10. Since grade one at school people looked at me and thought, oh gosh she can really run, she's a natural.

The predation of wolves and women by those who misunderstand them is strikingly similar.

Certain sincerely devout and spiritually advanced people believe that the God of their understanding helps them find parking places and gives them advice on Mass. Lottery numbers.

For precisely when concepts fail one, Words are found at the right time.

A writer can have only one language, if language is going to mean anything to him.