The reason behind the 2000 Election Controversy
On the 2000 election day, Gore won with the popular vote by more than half a million votes. On the other hand, Bush had won in most of the states in the South, Midwest, and Rocky Mountain region, while Gore won in most of the states in Pacific Coast, Northeast, and the upper Midwest (Ledwith, 2016). In total, Gore had gathered 255 electoral votes while Bush 246. However, none had gotten the required 270 electoral votes that qualifies one for victory. As such, the deciding outcome for the battle was Florida, which had 25 electoral votes (Sidman et al., 2008). Based on the exit polls, the media announced Gore as the winner and later after more votes were tallied, Bush appeared to command the lead. After 85 per cent of the votes had been counted, the media declared Bush the winner even though there were democratic counties which had not yet been tallied (Sidman et al., 2008). Disputes arose due to the reliability and accuracy of the election technology with confusion over butterfly ballots and punch-card voting machines.
If I were in the Bush campaign, I would stress on the win of my aspirant based on the electoral votes he garnered. On the other hand, if was on the Gore’s side, I would have advocated for a recount of the ballot papers to identify the actual winner of the election.
Solving the Problem
The problem could be solved through the adoption of the appropriate voting technology adequate to the voting needs of the country. For instance, the technology incorporated in the 2000 election was twice as old as the voters (Ledwith, 2016). The disputed election led to calls for the adoption of reforms in voting. Currently, most of the states have adopted electronic voting that will continue ensuring greater accuracy in elections.
References
Ledwith, S. (2016). Review of ‘Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States’. Reviews in History. doi: 10.14296/rih/2014/1972
Sidman, A., Mak, M., & Lebo, M. (2008). Forecasting non-incumbent presidential elections: Lessons learned from the 2000 election. International Journal of Forecasting, 24(2), 237-258. doi: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2008.03.003