richard mason wrote the first book "the drawning peopowning p oxford. the book critic at "the washington post" said it was the best book to cross his desk in some time. nobody likes a good bodice ripper quite as much as martin giles does. this has got our interest, you have created e-books which are not new either, but this is an interactive book that you are selling on apple's ipad. >> yes. it's an app actually. we are calling an illuminated app. i guess in many ways i'm very old fashioned. i wrote the whole book by hand. >> the original book -- >> original book, yeah. >> this is it here. >> this is it. right here. >> yes. >> my little portable office. >> very primitive. >> yes. then i saw an ipad for the first time and it was almost as though i had written a book knowing that an ipad might exist. i write about real history and places. i thought i just got to make an illuminated app for the ipad that really lets me tell the story in a way i always wanted to. >> so you import this over to ipad, not just apple book. >> no, gosh, i had no idea what a big

host: richard norton smith from george mason university. he is an author and a presidential historian. we are talking about election day, particularly when it comes to close elections. is there a history? guest: there is a history of just about everything and it is a particularly colorful one. going back to the beginning, there is arguably a flaw in the constitution. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] they did not foresee the rise of organized political parties. indeed, they dreaded the process. and so, in 1800, of every state in the electoral college had two votes. one was to be cast for president in the other four vice president. by 1800, the federal lists around the john adams had to come here and organized to the point that there were recognizable as political parties.

host: richard norton smith from george mason university,

host: richard norton smith from george mason university. he is an author and a presidential historian. we are talking about election day, particularly when it comes to close elections. is there a history? guest: there is a history of just about everything and it is a particularly colorful one. going back to the beginning, there is arguably a flaw in the constitution. they did not foresee the rise of organized political parties. indeed, they dreaded the process. and so, in 1800, of every state in the electoral college had two votes. one was to be cast for president in the other four vice president. by 1800, the federal lists around the john adams had to come here and organized to the point that there were recognizable as political parties. what that meant was that the candidate for president and vice president tied. jefferson, who was supposed to be candidates for the president had 73 and aaron burr of new york, supposed to be vice- president also was 73. that allowed the federalists to fish in troubled waters and it took the house of repres

host: richard norton smith from george mason university, an author and presidential historian. tonight at 8:00, your chance to see the election results as they watch and engage starting at 8: 00, not on the results of the presidential election but the senate, house, and governor's race. victory and concession speeches as well. and your reactions as you watch tonight and fold. watch it on c-span starting at 8:00, and you can tune into c- span radio and you can monitor on our website. and by the way, c-span.org is the place where you can look at interactive maps, ballot initiatives, and the other feature is as we go through the night especially the house and senate side and it does come in, you can see how the balance of power ways out interactively. all of that as part of our election hub. go to c-span.org for that information. again, our election night coverage part of the campaign 2012 starting at 8:00 tonight, c-span.org. we are about to go to the house of representatives where they are in a pro forma session today. tune in tonight and back on this program "washington journal