"Stolen" 2000 Election

[El Blanco]

I want to know what exactly Bush did to steal the 2000 election. I have found a few main arguments:

1) The Conservative controled Supreme Court handed it to him. Not really. Gore only wanted to recount 4 Florida counties under different standards than they were originally counted. 7 out of 9 judges said this violated the equal rights clauses because it made the votes in those 4 counties more important than the others. Tthe 5-4 desiscion was about whether or not it was legal to recount the entire state of Florida at that point. According to Florida state law, a candidate had 72 hours after the polls closed to challenge the results of an election. The 5 judges felt that there was no way to recount all of Florida in the remaining few hours by hand.

Besides, several independant sources did recount the votes afterward and found that it wouldn't have made a difference.

2) Minorities were prevented from voting by state troopers Yes. But, the only real live people who I have seen who claimed to have actually been prevented from voting by the police were unnaturalized immigrants from Haiti. They were prevented from voting because they weren't citizens.

3) The Electoral College is not democratic 220+ years of this system and people just now beef about it? I learned about it in the 6 grade and bitched about, so I don't see why this sort of thing shocked people. Its not the first time a president lost the popular vote but won the Electoral.

When Alexander Hamilton pushed for the Electoral College, he did it on the grounds that the average person did not have the competance to choose the POTUS. And, honestly, we really haven't proven him wrong.

[ScruU2wice]

like i said before i was just kidding around when i said bush stole the election of 2000 :rolleyes

and every 4 years people complain about the electoral college being un-democratic thats nothing special of bush's election.

[El Blanco]

I saw your post in the other thread. Didn't mean to bust your balls. But, I have seen it used a couple times in the past few weeks.

I know this is an excersise in futility, but I just want to see what else people have to say about it.

[Perndog]

I think we should do away with the popular vote altogether. People can vote for everyone else, but let state representatives vote for the President and have every vote count (instead of the pres winning state by state). I agree that people are incompetent.

[ScruU2wice]

then wouldn't one party technically have control of two branches of government. (unless you were jokin)

I think the system hasn't failed us extraordinarily enough to over throw it...

[Perndog]

One party does have control of at least two branches of government. Republican Congress, Republican President.

Unless you meant giving executive power to the legislation. Not quite. It would either be A) An electoral college that votes and nothing else or B) State legislators (not Congress) who are obvbiously tied up in national politics like the rest of us but don't have national power.

[ScruU2wice]

oh i thought you meant the legislation at the federal level. that makes a little more sense

but i still think the electoral college has served us pretty well over the 200 some years of it's existence, and any other new system is bound to have unforseeable flaws that will take affect maybe 10, 20 or 50 years down the road.

I think our scope of politics is too limited in making longterm decisions, like new system of election...

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Besides, several independant sources did recount the votes afterward and found that it wouldn't have made a difference.

And vice versa. I think Bush did steal the election, but I likewise believe that it was Al Gore's to lose. He could've done a lot of things, he could've persued an expansive recount more promptly, he could've challenged the Supreme Court decision, heck, maybe he could've won his home state, but I digress....

It annoys me that people chastize Bush for stealing something, but don't get on Gore's case for backing down. Now he gets to bitch about it and use it as a pun on SNL and stupid talk shows, but that doesn't do a damn thing.

2) Minorities were prevented from voting by state troopers Yes. But, the only real live people who I have seen who claimed to have actually been prevented from voting by the police were unnaturalized immigrants from Haiti. They were prevented from voting because they weren't citizens.

And people who were convicted of crimes in the year, uh, what, 2008...? The list of voters who were banned from voting was filled with fraudulent information, and it was also filled with minorities.

3) The Electoral College is not democratic 220+ years of this system and people just now beef about it? I learned about it in the 6 grade and bitched about, so I don't see why this sort of thing shocked people. Its not the first time a president lost the popular vote but won the Electoral.

I agree, quit bitching. If you want to change it, fight for it.

When Alexander Hamilton pushed for the Electoral College, he did it on the grounds that the average person did not have the competance to choose the POTUS. And, honestly, we really haven't proven him wrong.

AMEN.

[AChimp]

You should join the Commonwealth and become a constitutional monarchy like the rest of us. :posh