Thorough, extensive in scope, and meticulously researched, this new edition includes official, state-certified election returns by county and by district for the House, Senate, and gubernatorial elections of 2005–2006.

Alice V. McGillivray was a longtime associate at the Elections Research Center and a coauthor of the America at the Polls series in the 1980s and later until her death in 1995.

Rhodes Cook is a veteran Washington political analyst and writer, covering presidential and congressional elections as well as voting trends in general. For more than two decades, he was a political reporter on CQ's Weekly magazine. He currently hosts the political website rhodescook.com, publishes a bimonthly political newsletter, and since 1996 has been the author of "America Votes" and a series on U.S. primary elections.

Richard M. Scammon, who died in April 2001, was widely considered America’s most prominent elections expert during a long career as a government official, adviser to presidents, and analyst of voting trends and developments. He served in the State Department, as Census Bureau director under President John F. Kennedy, as chairman of the Presidential Commission on Regulation and Voting Participation in 1963 and 1964, and as an international election observer. He established the Elections Research Center in Washington, D.C., for voting analysis and publication of the America Votes series.