US Election 2000
The election of 2000 in the United States of America had severe malpractice indications against Democratic Party voters. Several election officials and politicians participated in a campaign to deny the democrats their constitutional rights to vote. Through legal processes and a flawed vote-counting system, the various persons involved in the poll ensures that many black voters failed to vote. The Republican officials also ensured that the system rejected counting votes by Democratic voters, thus granting the republican candidate an unfair advantage. The election of 2000 in the US was a sham and revealed the racial discrimination in the US electoral system against African Americans as Democratic Party voters.
The critical players in the election results included Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, George Bush, and Al Gore. Jeb Bush was the Governor of Florida and a brother to the Republican candidate for the US presidential elections in 2000. Many election analysts believe he influenced the voting process to ensure that his brother obtained the majority vote through dubious means. Katherine Harris was the Secretary of State for Florida and worked to develop the felon list that alienated many black voters from the election process. Harris also played a role in the vote recount process that revealed various anomalies. Harris was also the co-chair of the George Bush election campaign and took charge of the Florida vote recounting process. She ensured that the voting favored George Bush as the winning candidate for the President of the United States. Both Al Gore and George Bush were presidential candidates in the US elections of 2000. Whereas Al Gore represented the democratic Party, where Blacks have traditionally registered more than 90% allegiance, George Bush was the Republican candidate. Election officials in the George Bush presidential campaign in 2000 manipulated the election process to ensure that George Bush won the poll as the new occupant of the White House.
Efforts to mobilize black Americans for voter registration started after Jeb Bush won Florida’s governorship in 1998. Jeb made his first attempt in 1994 but lost the election. During his election campaigns, he responded to an interview question indicating that he will do nothing for the black community. Having secured the seat with only 10% of the black vote in 1998, Jeb Bush decided to reach out to the community resulting in taking away affirmative action initiatives for the Black Americans. The indication that Jeb would not consider the blacks annoyed the community and their leaders to initiate a voter registration campaign. The efforts paid off, leading to a 65% increase in voter registration among the Blacks in the state. The election campaign statement by Jeb Bush created the ground for mass voter registration campaigns in Florida, resulting in a 65% spike in the 2000 election more than any other period in history.
The Black community suffered election malpractice in the period preceding the 2000 elections, and several failed to cast the ballot on the polling date. When they went to the polling stations, many blacks realized that the authorities had removed their names from the voting register. Among the civil rights violations directed against the black community was the use of the felon purge list. The list contained individuals purported to have a criminal record to ensure that they did not vote. However, election officials assigned to prepare the list manipulated names and used a unique matching system that denied more than 6000 voters the right to cast their votes. Catherine Harris, the Secretary of State, alongside the Bush administration, took charge of the flawed process of preparing the list. The directive emanated from legislation in 1868 by ex-soldiers to ward of pressure from the federal government that compelled them to allow blacks to vote. The motive of the law had been to deny African Americans the right to participate in polls. The process led to many Black law-abiding citizens failing to vote due to the system that matched them with known offenders. An analysis of the list of offenders revealed that out of 690 persons on the list, only 33 of the individuals were felons. The attempt to purge Black voters from the election list was a violation of their civil rights and denied a large percentage of the community from participating in the 2000 polls.
The events of the election day in the 2000 presidential elections denied several eligible voters the opportunity to cast their ballots and annoyed extremely discouraged them. The authorities also asked blacks to produce additional documents not required in the electoral law. Many black voters failed to vote due to the lack of sufficient ballot boxes and denial of their voters’ cards. The black voters also received erroneous instructions that led to the nullification of their votes. Voters, for instance, received instructions to vote on every page leading to a spoilt ballot. Besides, the vote-counting machines failed to function, thus excluding many of the republican votes from the final tally. Thousands of ballots could not register a president’s vote, and several voter machines malfunctioned. Besides, some counties had confusing ballot designs that were not consistent with the counting machines. The election day’s events discouraged many of the democratic voters from the black community and threatened their participation in the future elections.
The military personnel participated in the election of 2000nas absentee voters. According to Florida laws, such votes must have appropriate postmarks, signed, and dated appropriately. However, inquiries showed that several absentee votes considered did not meet these requirements. Democrats challenged the legality of these votes demanding the exclusion of up to a third of the votes. The inclusion of the overseas ballots, regardless of their validity, contributed to increasing numbers for the Republican candidate and helped George Bush win the election 2000.
The County voter registrars experienced challenges in determining the authentic votes in the manual recount and republican demonstrations. The election observers disagreed on the kinds of votes to include in the recount, thus delaying the process. The protesters demanded a stop to the counting process. The officials also failed to complete the counting exercise by the deadline. The Florida Supreme court allowed the recount of the vote manually after the period, but the US supreme court reversed the instituted an emergency order stopping the process. The county election officers faced challenges from republican protesters and election observers that caused a delay in producing the final tally.
The election of 2000 was a demonstration of the challenges faced by the black community. Although Blacks registered in record numbers in preparation for the voting process, authorities denied them the right to vote due to erroneous inclusion into the felon list. Besides, black voters, who are majority Democratic loyalists, received faulty ballot materials that failed to meet the recommended standards. Authorities must ensure that the election process delivers equity for all voters regardless of their race or culture. The involvement of the state officials and the judiciary in the process demonstrated an official denial of the civil rights of black minorities in the United States. The election 2000 failed the integrity test and revealed the struggles that Black Americans continue to face in the enjoyment of their civil rights.