Film Analysis: The 2000 Presidential Election

It doesn’t take a political expert to see that the 2000 presidential election between Bush and Gore was extremely illegitimate. This can be observed through the recount incident which took place in the state of Florida. Many people, especially seniors, felt that they had not voted for the right candidate, which was due to a confusing ballot setup. The ballots were called “butterfly ballots”. These ballots, as one could imagine, had candidates on either side which the voter could choose from. Seems simple enough, right? Unfortunately, that was not the case. The font on the ballots were extremely minuscule, as well as condensed. To add to that, the voter had to use a pin to make a puncture next to their selection. Some people, who were either

The film Swing Vote is an American political culture film that relies heavily on film subtext to depict the negative attitude many Americans have towards voting, corruption inside a political election, and the spectacle of media frenzy. While the film gives a light hearted impression of a rare political snafu it is still consistent with the main themes of other political films of manipulation, money lust, and power hungry political heads that will stop at nothing for their own personal gain. We also see the political candidates merely as puppets while their campaign managers are the ones truly calling the shots. Swing Vote is a unique political culture film because due to the ordeal in the film’s plot, the politicians are at a disadvantage when they are usually the ones in power. With the tables turned we see how they construct their corrupt schemes and the direct effect it has on the character representing the American perspective. The strong symbols that convey the cultural norms in America’s political system are in need of a deeper analysis.

The 1980 presidential election of the United States featured three primary candidates, Republican Ronald Reagan, Democrat Jimmy Carter and liberal Republican John Anderson. Ronald Reagan was the governor of California before he decided to run for the presidency. John Anderson was a representative in Illinois and Carter was the incumbent. The lengthy Iran hostage crisis sharpened public opinions by the beginning of the election season. In the 1970s, the United States were experiencing a straining episode of low economic growth, high price increases and interest rates and an irregular energy crisis. The sense of discomfort in both domestic and foreign affairs in the nation were heading downward, this added to the downward spiral that was already going on. Between Carter, Anderson and Reagan, the general election campaign of the 1980s seemed more concerned with shadowboxing around political issues rather than a serious discussion of the issues that concerned voters.

People went to bed one night thinking that Gore had won, but when they woke up they found out that bush had won with Florida’s twenty-five electoral votes. It happened on November 7, 2000. Bush charged that the recounts in Florida broke the rules of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. A 7-2 majority ruled that the Florida recount was being conducted unconstitutionally. The case was covered in controversy as the Majority versus minority opinion on the redress was split along the lines of the more reactionary justices voting in favor of Bush and the more liberal justices voting in favor of Gore. The minority disunity noted these issues and other including the principle of equality and

It is hard to believe that it will be a year since the Bush vs. Gore campaign was in it’s

The United States Presidential elections are often events that captivate and interest a number of people around the world. The 2000 U.S. presidential election was particularly notable for more than one reason. Certainly, the fact that an election year in the year 2000, the marking of the next millennium and next century, is significant in of itself. In addition, there were a number of critical issues facing the candidates in this election, as with any election. The role, presence, and influence of the United States media were additional factors that heightened the tension of the 2000 presidential election. The election itself was fraught with controversy. The Supreme Court had to be involved and render a ruling with respect to accusation of fraudulent vote counting. Overall, the 2000 United States Presidential Election is an election that is remembered for controversy, polarization of the American public, as well as issues of confusion and mistrust between the American public and the American government.

As in the past, the media was covering the all important election. They had always relied on exit polls as the polls closed across the nation. In reality, the Florida results were just too close to call. Nevertheless, that did not stop the media from doing so. Not once, but twice, major news media outlets were erroneous in their report. Around 8pm, it was declared that Al Gore was the projected winner of the electoral votes in the state of Florida. However, a couple of hours later, the projection was retracted and restated as Florida as being too close to call. Then, just after 2am on November 8, the mistake was made for a second time. The major networks declared George W. as the winner. This even led to Al Gore calling the Governor to concede. However, as Gore prepared to address his supporters in Nashville, Tennessee, he was alert to the shrinking numbers in Bush¡¦s lead. The final total was now less than one half of a percent lead in favor of Bush. That immediately calls for a recount of votes under state law. Subsequently, Gore called Bush and retracted his concession. It wasn¡¦t over yet! One thing was, Al Gore had prevailed in the popular vote but without Florida¡¦s tally, the electoral vote was up in the air. The election wasn¡¦t over and the recounts began.

Governor Bush was leading in the poles by 1,800, because it was so close Florida’s laws had to call for an automatic machine recount of votes. The votes were so close that Florida law let Gore the choice of a manual vote recount in the counties he wanted. The trial of Palm Beach Canvassing Board v. Katherine Harris was a response from the Bush campaign to state litigation against extending the deadline for recounts. Gore’s campaign finally agreed to Florida’s Supreme Court decision for the recount.

A night of controversy as the 2000 presidential election begins. The news calms a winner, but then calls it to close. The Florida Supreme Court calls for a recount, but not in the whole state. The U.S Supreme Court says that there will not be a recount and Bush is president, but this ruling is only in this case. The democrats don’t want to go to court, but the republicans do.

Nationwide, Al Gore won over George W. Bush by 500,000 votes. When the polls closed, Gore had acquired 266 electoral votes, losing to Bush’s 271 electoral votes. At this point, the election came down to Florida; a mandatory recount was ordered by the Florida Supreme Court, on the standards that the “hanging chad” – ballots the voter has not punched all the way through – were to be counted. After the recount, it was declared that Bush was ahead in the election by 1, 784 votes. But, just after Gore made his concession call, Bush’s votes had decreased to about 327, with four major counties still pending recounts. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, also a co-chairman of Bush campaign, ordered for recounts to be stopped. Eventually, the issue was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the fate of the election would be decided.

Everything from the machinations of the party to the actions of their voters, such as the riots that had slowed the recount and thus eliminated what precious little time it was allowed[3,4], lead to the slow yet eventual death of Gore’s chance at the presidency. The entirety of the affair was rigged in opposition of the Democrats, yet even so the race was considered

After everything was said and done the decisions by the courts were all legitimate, however, the counting of votes and the numbers that came out of them may have not been legitimate. For instance some counties would count the dimples in the voting ballots while others weren’t. Then there was Katherine Harris, all of her decisions were controversial and there wasn’t a single one that the people could be satisfied with. The results of some her choices were : direct insults to her, the delay of the election, and vote count loss. Others were going on saying that Bush was selected by Harris herself and he wasn’t fairly elected, this is based off of the choices she decided upon making. Some of those impactful choices would be her not extending the recount deadlines, the attempt to throw out overseas ballots that hadn’t arrived by the deadline, ordered the following counties to stop recounting :Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. Now along with some of that information lies the fact that the election process wasn’t fully developed and thought through for a situation of this sort.

The 2000 presidential election is considered one of the most controversial and closet election in American history today. The 5-4 decision made in favor of George W. Bush over Vice president Al Gore was decided by the 537 votes that came from the state of Florida. It took over a month of recounts and challenges to the Supreme Court to come to the determination of the winner. The campaign was dominated by domestic issues in opposition to foreign policy, prescription drug prices, campaign finance reform, social security, and education. Each candidate fought a good battle claiming that their economic plan would reduce the deficit. It had been less than two years since the whole sex scandal issue with Bill Clinton, and so Al Gore refused to allow Clinton to

There have been many debates that have spanned over the past decade on whether or not the 2000 presidential election was legitimate or not. Bush only won by 537 votes which is grounds for a recount so the Gore campaign was in there right to ask for one. Now this is why many people like myself believe this election to be illegitimate, Katherine Harris the secretary of state of Florida did everything she can to not comply to the recount. She also compiled a list of felons so they would not be allowed to vote, but she also added people to the list that had similar names to the criminals, some 20,000 people were turned away from voting booths. Now if she did that because she actually thought it was the right thing to do and wasn’t trying to set

The controversial election of 2000 between George Bush and Al Gore was too close to determine a winner. With a margin of victory that minimal; a mandatory recount was required. The winner of the election hinged on the state of Florida, therefore a recount was done in the state of Florida to signify a winner. After the recount was finished, the outcome was Bush. The democrats pushed for a national recount; but the decision wasn’t in their favor. I believe the election of 2000 was not legitimate because the numbers show otherwise. If a national hand recount were to be sanctioned, the numbers indicate that Gore would have overturned the ruling and came out on top. Sadly, Gore never requested a statewide recount, and the recount in Florida favored