Election Reform Debate in the U.S.

▪ 2002

      Amid calls for a radical overhaul of the U.S. electoral system, George W. Bush was inaugurated as president of the United States on Jan. 20, 2001. The 2000 presidential election exposed several deficiencies in the conduct of American elections: the possibility that a candidate could win more popular votes than his opponent and still lose the electoral college tally—Bush defeated Al Gore 271–266 despite winning 500,000 fewer votes nationwide; faulty and outdated election equipment—a General Accounting Office audit found that nearly three-fifths of voting sites had problems in 2000; a lack of uniform rules for election recounts; early and incorrect media projections; confusing ballot design, most notably in Florida, where possibly thousands of people were led to vote mistakenly for a candidate; and low voter turnout. As legislators throughout the U.S. debated election reform, by year's end media analyses of disputed ballots still showed the 2000 race too close to call.

      Many proposed election reforms, such as the abolition of the electoral college and the creation of a national holiday for election day, were discarded quickly owing to a lack of support, though in early 2001 momentum in favour of reform suggested that major changes, such as a uniform national poll closing time, would be enacted by year's end. Of the more than 1,500 bills proposed in Congress and in all 50 states, however, few were enacted. Partisan wrangling hampered reform efforts early in the year. Receiving the most support were proposals to eliminate punch-card ballot systems, which had led to high rates of uncounted ballots and which tended to be concentrated in poorer areas, in favour of optical scanning systems. Some studies found that as many as two million votes were uncounted nationwide because of faulty election equipment. Despite the efforts of the bipartisan National Commission on Federal Election Reform, led by former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, by May the election reform movement had stalled in the U.S. Congress and in many states. In December, however, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved (362–63) a bill that provided funds to states to modernize election equipment and establish national voting standards, and at year's end many predicted that a compromise between the House and Senate would result in the enactment of election reforms in early 2002.

      The most sweeping election reform package was adopted in Florida, the state that had endured a five-week standoff in the presidential election before Bush was declared the winner by a margin of only 537 votes after the Supreme Court halted a recount. On May 9 Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the brother of the president, approved a uniform statewide ballot design and the elimination of punch cards in favour of optical scanners or other advanced technologies by 2002. The new law also established standardized procedures for the review of ballots during manual recounts—a key point of contention between the Gore and Bush camps. Nevertheless, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a report a few weeks later that criticized Florida election officials, finding them “grossly derelict” both before and during the November 2000 standoff. The commission's report, which was criticized by Republicans, also found that African Americans were 10 times more likely than white voters to have their votes uncounted and claimed that the reforms enacted in Florida would not entirely eliminate this disparity.

Michael Levy

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