And the Winner Is? A Look at How Bush Unfairly Won the 2000 Presidential Election

There is quite a bit of controversy involved in the presidential election of 2000. There is evidence to support that Al Gore would have in fact won the election, if it were fair to both parties. This is not to say that the outcome was necessarily to George W. Bush’s fault, but the final result was improperly and unjustly swayed in his direction. The nation was held in the balance for nearly an entire month to learn the outcome of the election and who would be the next president of the United States of America. George W. Bush, losing the popular vote, managed to win the electoral votes giving him the victory due to legal technicalities and improper equipment. The series of events ensuing the election quickly showed that there were issues. Instead of properly investigating the issues a quick decision was made setting forth enormous implementations on the outcome of the 2000 presidential election.

The American economy saw massive expansion in the 1990s. The Democratic Party was strong, led by a democratic President Bill Clinton, and a democratic Vice President Al Gore. Clinton had served his two terms in office, therefore unable to run for a third term. Vice President Gore was favored to run election and to also receive the democratic nomination. Gore had the strong economy of the 90s to support his run for office, which could be attributed to the Clinton administration in some ways. According to H. W. Brands in his book American Dreams, “the first rule of American politics is that voters reward incumbents for prosperity”1 which is exactly what Clinton and Gore gave the people. However, Gore would have to get past the scandals of the Clinton administration in order to win the popular vote. This deemed to not be too large...

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... person with different values and opinions could have been at the helm of the U.S. clearly shows how important it is that future presidential elections are fair and that we as a society can determine the true victor.

Works Cited

Agresti Alan, and Brett Presnell, "Misvotes, Undervotes and Overvotes: The 2000 Presidential Election in Florida," Statistical Science, 17, no. 4 (2002): 436-40, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3182765

Bishin Benjamin, Daniel Stevens, and Christian Wilson, "Character Counts? Honesty and Fairness in Election 2000," The Public Opinion Quarterly, 70, no. 2 (2006): 235-48, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3843961

Brands H.W. American Dreams, (New York : Penguin Books, 2010), 341-43.

Posner Richard, "The 2000 Presidential Election: A Statistical and Legal Analysis," Supreme Court Economic Review , 12 (2004): 1-40, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3655316