Essay Sample on 2000 Presidential Election

Introduction

The 2000 elections faced many challenges which saw many voters feel like they were not allowed to enjoy their right to vote. During the presidential election of 2000 some of the problems that the voters suffered included, voter disenfranchisement, and election officials had a conflict of interest, and also the ballot counting process suffered some predicaments which affected the entire voting exercise. The above problems are the main ones that impacted the American people and below and going to elaborate on each of them and suggest ways that could help mitigate the issues.

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Firstly, voter disenfranchising is a situation where the American voters were removed from the voters citing unrealistic reasons for removing their names from the list. Some of the reasons given to the voters were that they did not have voter registration cards and even some went to the voting centers that they had voted in before, and they found out that their names were missing from the list. Some voters were removed from the list because they had the same names as ex-convicts because the ex-convicts were not allowed to vote. The best way to mitigate this problem is to make sure that a reliable method of preparing vote list is integrated into the voting process, most probably an electronic method of verifying the voters. The first video suggest that the voter database to be counter checked regularly to ensure that the matches of voters is corrected.

Secondly, the election officials had a conflict of interest, and they were therefore forced to engage in election malpractices, for example, some officials who were mandated to make the list of voters in Florida, generated a list of that had some problems, and even some names that were supposed to be on the list were missing. The best way of solving the conflict of interest by election officials is to have an independent body to handle election processes. For example in the first video Catherine Harris who was in charge of the purge list was also a co-chair of the George W Bush campaign team and this probably brought about a conflict of interest.

Thirdly, ballot counting problems led to a recount of the votes using machine counting, but at the end of the recount, the machine had failed to capture some of the ballots. Devices that were used to carry out the voting process were not in good condition; hence they were faulty and could not ensure an efficient voting process because the machines could not read the ballots (Wayne). Also the electronic voting machines area prone to hacking, this problem can be solved by using paper voting method, the second video suggest paper voting is the safest method since it cannot be hacked.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the American government could have done a better job in supervising the entire voting process. The problems mentioned above could be avoided if the administration had taken due diligence and ensure that only qualified personnel who could not be compromised were given the mandate to conduct the election. The problems of ballot counting and voter disenfranchisement only occurred because the systems and methods that were used to carry out these exercises were not efficient. The American people, from all races and color deserved the right to vote for their representative.

Work Cited

Wayne, Stephen J., and Clyde Wilcox. The Election of the Century: The 2000 Election and What it Tells Us About American Politics in the New Millennium: The 2000 Election and What it Tells Us About American Politics in the New Millennium. Routledge, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI8HU_OPkxI