Alicia Cheng is the author of This Is What Democracy Looked Like, the first visual history of printed ballot design. The book illuminates the noble but often flawed process at the heart of democracy. An exploration of U.S. ballots from the 19th and early 20th centuries, the book examines the unregulated, ornate, and at times absurd designs that formed the very foundation of our electoral system. These ballots offer insight into a pivotal time in American history, tracing the explosive growth of an evolving electorate as well as a legacy of electoral fraud, disenfranchisement, and skulduggery embodied by such schemes as the tapeworm ballot and the Tasmanian Dodge. 

Cheng is graphic designer and founding partner of MGMT. design, a collaborative design studio based in Brooklyn. She has taught and served as a visiting critic at Yale University, Princeton University, the Maryland Institute College of Art, Barnard College, Parsons School of Design, the Cooper Union School of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design.