Tag Archives: Florida

Tangled Web

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This election’s shaping up to be another humdinger.

THE HOARY QUESTION OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

In the middle of a contentious election, in the fourth year of an administration that didn’t win the popular vote, in an era of ennui, this is the probably the worst possible time to ask one of the hardest questions of our political life. But that is also why this question cannot be avoided:

Should the Electoral College survive in its current form, or at all?

Florida 2000: The Sequel

Newspapers and magazines have been full of stories raising the disturbing possibility that the 2004 presidential election could once again end up in the courts: Will we wake up on Nov. 3 not knowing whether George W. Bush or John Kerry will be president for the next four years? Will the Supreme Court intervene again? How did things end up this way? Didn’t the country learn anything from the Florida debacle of 2000?

Election Hijinks

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USAToday has joined the New
York Times in highlighting
the nightmares involving the electoral college. This piece is more informative
and less biased than the
previous.

Remember the 36-day drama over Florida’s hanging chads and butterfly ballots?

Get ready for a replay.

How it could happen

The scenarios aren’t far-fetched:

*For a tie: Every state votes the way it did four years ago, except for two. New Hampshire and West Virginia, which voted for Bush last time, go Democratic this time. Kerry is competitive in both states.

*For a divided result that elects Bush: Every state votes the way it did four years ago, giving Bush an electoral-vote majority of 278. That’s a more comfortable edge – a side effect of the redistribution of congressional seats and electoral votes after the 2000 Census – than last time, when Bush got 271 votes, one more than required. But Kerry carries the popular vote, as Al Gore (news – web sites) did, by rolling up big totals in such strongholds as California and New York.

*For a divided result that elects Kerry: Every state votes the way it did four years ago, except for one. Kerry wins Florida, for a majority of 287 electoral votes, or Ohio, for 280. They went Republican in 2000; state polls released Sunday show Kerry and Bush tied in both. But Bush carries the popular vote by scoring oversized margins in his home state of Texas and in the South and Mountain West.