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Politics : Electoral College 2000 - Ahead of the Curve
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To: Oral Roberts who wrote (1207)11/8/2000 8:30:53 PM
From: Bill Fischofer  Read Replies (1) of 6710
 
Re: Majorities

Nobody received a majority (the proverbial 50% plus 1) of the popular vote in this election. Even if by some miracle Gore managed to reverse FL and win the electoral vote he would still be a minority president in terms of the popular vote.

The moral dilemma of the electoral system (which did not arise in this election) is that in a two-person race it is possible for one candidate to poll an absolute majority of the popular vote and still lose the electoral vote. With third-party candidates the result we have in this election in which neither of the top two candidates poll a majority of the votes cast would under a direct election system typically result in a runoff election being held between the two leaders.

However, the essence of the rule of law requires that you don't change the rules to suit the circumstance after the fact. Under our present electoral system the criteria for a clean win is very clear and I expect both candidates will abide by the constitutional election rules regardless of what talking heads on the networks may speculate about to fill time while waiting for the recount to be completed. A debate about changing the electoral system via a constitutional amendment would be an appropriate matter to be brought up in the next Congress but it will have no impact on the current election.
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