2000 Presidential Election 2000

After careful consideration about the factors presented, I have decided that the 2000 presidential election between G.W Bush and Al Gore was illegitimate. My decision is based off of both the votes that were casted and those that were not. Firstly, focusing on the votes that were casted, there were many numbers that were either not or wrongly counted. The 175,000 undervotes that were supposably considered the ¨spoiled ballots” is one of these examples. The first factor that added to the illegitimacy of this election was the machine in Volusia county which “added 3,000 votes to Bush’s total and subtracted thousands of votes from Gore” [1]. This put Gore’s count in the Volusia county to -16,000. Thus, because of this machine failure, the actual
Moreover, the Palm Beach County problem where many voters felt as if they voted for the wrong person also added to the illegitimacy to this election. Pat Buchanan himself stated that he believed “many of the votes casted for him were probably casted by mistake and were for Al Gore” [1]. Because of the design of the butterfly ballot, it may have cost Al Gore many votes. “Buchanan may have received over 3,000 votes that were intended for Al Gore” [1]. Not only did he lose votes because they were wrongly casted, but it was also stated in the movie that the ballot design itself cost him a minimum of 6,000 votes. Thus, the design of the ballot aided in the illegitimacy to the election because it caused confusion, thus votes were casted wrongly. Additionally, the biggest number that had the greatest effect on the illegitimacy of the 2000 election was the 175,000 undervotes. Ultimately, these votes were greatly affected by the design of the ballots. Since they were never counted, we can not say who for sure would of
It was stated, “20,000 people were illegally disqualified from voting, almost half of them were African-American” [1]. Since they were never casted and do not have any effect on the overall results of the election, it is still an important factor to consider. 20,000 people were illegally turned away, meaning 20,000 votes were not casted based off wrong standards. These votes could have had an impact on the results. But because they were never casted, we will never know. The fact that they were illegally turned away is an additional aspect, in my perspective, that aids in the illegitimacy. Ultimately, there were various aspects that affected and could have affected the results of the election. Such as the design of the ballot, or the fact that people were illegally turned away, thus not casting votes. I believe that if the Supreme Court had not halted the recount in Florida, Al Gore would have won. It seemed more like a street fight between both parties then actually trying to figure out who deservingly won the election. With the factors and numbers presented, I have the assertion that the 2000 presidential election between G.W Bush and Al Gore was not