Last week, Americans painstakingly checked their phones for days in hopes that the election results would finally come in. the last time citizens have been made to wait past election night was 2000, and it took over a month instead of a few days. The country waited on Florida's recount, as the margin was too close to call between Gore and Bush. Palm Beach County faced particular controversy in their recount process due to a design flaw in their ballot. The butterfly ballot design led to over 2,000 democratic voters democratic voters to mistakenly vote for the Reform party candidate, Pat Buchanan, leading to Bush's victory in a traditionally blue county. Since Bush won the state of Florida by less than 2,000 votes, and in turn the election, this design flaw in one county multiplied into a presidential election scandal.
Through our discussions of Condorcet's paradox (and our class constitutional convention results), we have explored the importance of voting rules for outcomes. In the Bush versus Gore election, if the voting rules had set forth a uniform ballot design instead of allowing Palm Beach County to choose the confusing butterfly layout, Al Gore would have won the election. Isn't it crazy to think that a simple design flaw in one county determined the presidency.
photo of butterfly ballot:
The ballot was so confusing because the second hole punch was to vote for Pat Buchanan. A hasty voter could very easily mistakenly think that this second hole punch was for Al Gore.
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