Election 2000
By KIFLIN TURNER
News Writer
One week has passed since the controversial presidential election and the country is still eagerly awaiting the results. With Florida hanging in the balance, the candidates are in a heated battle over whether Florida ballots should be recounted. Circuit Judge Terry Lewis upheld the 5 p.m. deadline yesterday for the Florida recount originally set by Florida Republican Secretary of State, Katherine Harris.
The Gore campaign vowed to challenge the decision, as stated by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher. The halt in the recount is expected to confirm Bush the victor by 388 votes according to an unofficial media tally.
What then comes to mind is the general opinion of the American people and what effects, if any, the election have has had on society. Especially alarming is the possible aftermath of the lengthy election process on the future of the Electoral College as well as on financial markets.
"I see it as an index of the system working not malfunctioning," said Donald Kommers, concurrent professor in the Notre Dame Law School, on the issue of the extended elections.
With the elections dragging on for days, many Americans have voiced concern over the constitutionality of the Florida recount, as well as over the incidents that have occurred in various Floridian counties
"The [further away] we keep getting from the election it seems like people are more frustrated; it's starting to look really petty among the candidates," said Susan Alexander, associate professor of sociology at Saint Mary's.
Many voters are having a difficult time accepting the voting delay, said Sean Savage, Saint Mary's associate professor of political sciene.
"Generally Americans expect much more of an immediate, specific response of the majority will than they did more than 200 years ago when the Electoral College was developed and instituted," Savage said.
Kommers agreed.
"These people have no historical sense," he added. "When the Electoral College functioned during the early 19th Century it was really days and weeks before anyone knew who was going to be elected. I guess we feel differently because of modern technology."
"From the polls I've seen so far about two-thirds of all Americans say they would rather have the count be accurate than quick, and so far Americans have been patient with the whole process," said Savage. "As a consequence of all this, we'll probably have the Electoral College subjected to the greatest scrutiny ever, especially in modern century."
If in the event Democrat presidential candidate Al Gore wins the popular vote and Republican candidate George W. Bush wins the Electoral College vote, there is a strong possibility that the American opinion of the voting process may sour and lead to reform, Savage said.
"I think we could have probably the most serious effort in modern times to amend the Constitution," he said.
Kommers, however, said that the efficiency concerns of the Electoral College and talks of absolving it are misguided.
"There's a lot of exaggerated rhetoric over what this all means," said Kommers. "I think the Electoral College gives the states, particularly the small states more clout in the federal system than would otherwise be the case. So for federalistic reasons we should probably be in favor of retaining the Electoral College."
Not only has the delay in elections results sparked debate on the efficiency of the Electoral College, but the doubt of who will become the next leader of the United States has had speculated effects on the stock markets during the last week.
Former Secretary of State James Baker, representing the Bush campaign, said that the election confusion was causing financial market profits to decline, and that the market may continue to suffer until Dec. 18, when the Electoral College will meet to vote in the next president.
"I think the presidential election situation is being blamed for a lot of the decline in the stock market," said Claude Renshaw, professor of the College of Business Administration and Economics at Saint Mary's.
"But I think the real reason for the decline in the stock market is just because people are coming to the realization that so many companies have been over-valued in the last year," he added.
Renshaw said the decline of the stock market is nothing new, and that the market had been showing signs of decline before the presidential elections began.
"If you look at the trend of the last several months, the decline in the market started and continued long before a question of the presidential election came in," he said. "How do you explain all the decline that took place about 10 months before the election?"
Despite the prediction that the market would continue to dwindle during the post-election process, yesterday proved the idea false when the markets began to rise.
Other election discrepancies have surfaced lately including a Florida voting mishap, causing more than 19,000 ballots to be thrown out due to the complaints from several voters who accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan thinking they were voting for Al Gore.
Savage said that these errors may cause a national reform to establish uniform standards for voting processes.
"I don't know if [the government] is going to achieve that kind of national uniformity, but I think at least at the state level, we may see each state trying to get greater similarity in all different counties about what kind of system is used for voting," he said.
Some people also have suggested that the closeness of the presidential race might also bring about change in the number of American citizens who choose to vote in the future.
"Even as close as this race has been all along, it did not make much impact on voter turnout, but the controversy now might make more of a difference," said Alexander. With Bush recapturing New Mexico by a slim margin of 17 votes after it had been awarded to Gore, and the general narrow scope of the elections, the voting process has raised more interest on behalf of the voters, said Alexander.
"I do think it is making people far more attentive to the process," she added. "The actual strategy of the campaign I think is largely going to be overshadowed by the post-election strategy."
All News Stories for Wednesday, November 15, 2000
