“This is What Democracy Looked Like: A Visual History of the Printed Ballot” is a book written by Alicia Cheng in 2020. Cheng released the book before the election of that year. This book features examples of past ballots used in previous American elections. It also discusses Cheng’s research on the historical design of ballots. With these designs, Cheng wanted to teach us about America’s (uneasy) relationship with voting and democracy. It mixes Cheng’s expertise in design history with our knowledge of American history. In the book, Cheng goes on to show how both have changed over time and uses this information to tell a story about American democracy. Along with this book, Cheng participated in an interview for the podcast, “Scratching the Surface”. In the interview, Jarrett Fuller, the host of “Scratching the Surface”, asks Cheng to discuss the research and their findings. They talk about the implications and relationship these ballots had with democracy. Cheng goes into detail about the typography and visual elements used and what we can take away from these designs.  Additionally, since this book was released before the election, Cheng discusses how her findings can be applied to America’s current relationship with voting, more specifically the way the voting process was being effected. This book is a wonderful example of the kinds of themes that Cheng likes to base her work off of. Many of her pieces discuss sustainability, politics, equality etcetera. This book was one of Cheng’s most recent works and also one of her most well-known pieces.

Sources:

• https://www.waterstones.com/book/this-is-what-democracy-looked-like/alicia-yin-cheng/9781616898878
• https://www.typeroom.eu/a-book-a-day-this-is-what-democracy-looked-like-a-visual-history-of-the-printed-ballot-by-alicia-yin-cheng
• https://scratchingthesurface.fm/165-alicia-cheng