The Republican nominee for the Presidency was George W. Bush, the son of the 41st President George H. W. Bush. The Democrats nominated Clinton's Vice-President, Al Gore. A candidate needs to win 270 electoral college votes to be elected President. As the votes were being tallied, it became clear that whoever won Florida would win the election. The morning after Election Day, Bush led Gore by about 1,800 votes. As the results were so close, Florida law called for an automatic recount. There was debate over the validity of all the ballots cast. A vote is counted by striking a hole next to the name of your desired candidate. Some ballots had two holes pokes in them, and some had an indent, but not a complete hole. As the recounts progressed, there came the point when Bush only had a lead by a mere 330 votes. Gore was then given the option of starting manual recounts in counties of his choosing. Gore opted for manual recounts in four counties with widespread complaints of voting machine malfunction. Florida state law also required the election results be certified by the Secretary of State within seven days of the election. Secretary of State Katherine Harris wanted to certify the results before the recounts and complete and rejected the appeals by three counties for the delay. The Florida Supreme Court subsequently ruled that Secretary Harris must allow the counties to recount their votes until November 26, 2000. The Miami-Dade County then stopped counting because they knew they couldn't finish by the deadline. Gore sought but failed to obtain a court order for Miami-Dade to continue counting. The Supreme Court ruled on December 12, 2000, that the recount was unconstitutional because it granted more protection to some ballots than to others, violating the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. December 12 is also the state deadline for selecting electors to formally submit Florida's choice for president to Congress. Some believe the Supreme Court made a correct decision to ensure equal rights, while others suggest the ruling might have been politically opportunistic. Media and academic organizations recounted the votes anyway, though they wouldn't count towards the official results. Many concluded that if the disputed ballots had been counted as votes, Al Gore would have won the Presidency, though, again, there are disagreements regarding the way in which these studies were conducted as well.
It is still possible for a similar scenario to happen in future elections. I believe it would be beneficial to study alternative procedures for casting and counting votes. One thing we must do as voters is make sure we follow instructions given on the ballot to assure our voices are heard.
Main Source: http://www.factcheck.org/2008/01/the-florida-recount-of-2000/
In my opinion, trying to fix problems regarding corrupted ballot outcomes isn't simple enough to do by encouraging voters to just "follow instructions." At the time (and for most elections for that matter), most voters were probably following the instructions provided to them as people wanted to elect the president that they supported. Obviously, there were probably stragglers and rebels who didn't understand the significance of voting properly or wanted to protest the system, but I would imagine these people were a minority of the actual electorate considering that most people don't necessarily take voting as a joke. Therefore, I think trying to prevent warped voting outcomes is more of an issue that has to do with reforming the way voting occurs in the first place rather than changing individual behaviors. By making the voting system simpler, more accessible to everyone, and more robust in general, legislators would be able to mitigate these problems and ensure that even if some voters were either incompetent or wanted to rebel against the system, their influence on the system as a whole wouldn't be substantial.
ReplyDeleteI think its absolutely insane that there was such a narrow gap between the amount of votes the two candidates earned. In my opinion, such a narrow victory should not be considered a victory at all, and a recount simply must take place. However, why does it matter who won the popular vote? As we all know from recent events, the winner of the election depends on the electoral college, which can act independent to the people it represents.
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