Sir David Butler, who died yesterday (November 8, the American Election Day) at the age of 98, was one of the preeminent election analysts in Great Britain. He was also a great friend of AEI’s and author of several books in AEI’s At The Polls series. Long-time AEI scholars Austin Ranney and Howard Penniman supervised the project, and several British scholars shared their expertise. AEI was fortunate that Sir David was a frequent collaborator. His knowledge of election systems around the world was unparalleled, and he had a deep familiarity with their strengths and weaknesses. He coauthored Democracy at the Polls: A Comparative Study of Competitive National Elections with Ranney and Penniman in 1981. He also wrote the AEI volume in the series on referendum procedures around the globe.

Sir David observed American politics close up as an assistant to the British Ambassador to the United States in the early 1950s. He is also associated with the term “psephology,” which now means the study of elections. Sir David and his Nuffield College colleagues coined the term as a joke; it literally means the study of pebbles, as the Ancient Greeks voted using different colored pebbles.

Sir David was a familiar face on the BBC on election nights for decades. He used a graphic he invented called the swingometer, to show how votes shifted from one party to another. It never caught on here, but it was a staple of his election night analysis on the BBC from more than 30 years.

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