Haunted by the 2000 elections

2004-10-20 13:15

Washington - Four years after George W Bush bested Al Gore in a nail-biting US presidential election, the contest remains a political nightmare that may long haunt the way the country picks its leader.

Few can forget the roller-coaster finish of November 7 2000 when US television networks crowned Gore, then Bush and finally pronounced the race too close to call before a messy, protracted recount in the south-eastern state of Florida.

But with Bush locked in a tight fight against Democratic Senator John Kerry in the November 2 ballot, many of the structural problems that plagued the last White House battle still linger.

Concern has mounted over voting machinery, registration rules, absentee ballots and other issues left over from the 2000 debacle that was finally decided by the US Supreme Court five weeks after the polling day.

More worrisome might be the fallout if, for the second straight time, a candidate loses the popular tally but wins the presidency by a majority of electoral votes that are doled out in separate state races.

"The expectation that the entire American election system would be overhauled in time for November 2 has clearly not been met," the non-partisan Electionline.org wrote in a report released Tuesday.

"Antiquated voting systems remain and our system of managing elections for Americans stationed or living abroad are virtually unchanged. Federal funds for elections improvements arrived late," it said.

The United States is no stranger to cliffhanger elections. Two in the early 19th century were thrown into the House of Representatives and a third in 1876 was decided four months after election day by a commission named by Congress.

The 2000 showdown

The 2000 showdown was destined to be close given the finely divided electorate. But nothing prepared the country for the televised spectacle between Gore, the outgoing vice president, and Bush, the governor of Texas.

Shortly before 20:00 all the major networks, using exit polls from a consortium known as Voter News Service, put Florida's 25 electoral votes in Gore's column and made him the likely overall winner.

But VNS compiled its figures before polls closed in the state's strongly Republican panhandle. As those results came in the networks made an unprecedented turnabout and proclaimed Florida too close to call.

Around 02:15 on Wednesday the networks, led by the conservative Fox News, gave Florida and the White House to Bush. Gore was beaten by 271 to 266 electoral votes and called Bush to concede, but the drama was far from over.

As the Republican's lead in Florida shrunk to just a few thousand votes, Gore, who was leading in the popular tally nationwide by more than half a million, called an incredulous Bush to say the race was still on.

An hour later the networks again reversed themselves and said Florida was anybody's guess. Bush was ahead by 1 784 votes out of nearly six million cast and a recount started, accompanied by fierce legal manoeuvring on both sides.

Bush's margin was whittled to a final 537 votes and the country held its breath as court challenges dragged on for weeks, making their way through the Florida court system before ending up in the US Supreme Court.

A 'confusing, butterfly ballot'

Americans puzzled over the complexities of a confusing "butterfly" ballot or the validity of a partially punched-out "chad" on a punch ballot. Florida Afro-Americans screamed that thousands of blacks had been improperly barred from voting.

The dispute came to an end on December 12 when the US Supreme Court ordered the Florida Supreme Court to devise a new, more equitable recount system but added that it had to be done that night.

With time having run out, Gore finally conceded for good, becoming the fourth man in US history to win the popular vote but lose the White House.

Volumes have been written about the 2000 election, which demonstrated a failure at several levels. A national inquiry commission was formed and calls rang out to simplify voting procedures and abolish the system of electors.

Electionline.org said some improvements had been made but serious questions remained about the continued widespread use of punch cards, the reliability of electronic voting systems, rules concerning absentee voting and other issues.

Both sides have marshalled an army of lawyers to keep watch over the vote, raising the spectre of half a dozen Floridas this time around. But a congressional report said the government was ill-prepared to address allegations of mass fraud.

Several legal experts and analysts have fretted that a repeat of 2000 could erode Americans' faith in the political process and worsen already bitter divisions within the country.

"If it happens one time it's an anomaly," Elizabeth Garrett, director of the University of Southern California-Caltech Centre on Law and Poltiics, told the New York Times. "A second time and it's clear there are real problems."

- AFP