The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Amy Fried is a retired political science professor at the University of Maine. Her views are her own and do not represent those of any group with which she is affiliated.
In the fall of 2000 I asked politically engaged students to come to class to talk about their preferred candidates and to let people know how they could volunteer. Matt Gagnon, now a fellow Bangor Daily News opinion columnist, was eloquent and prepared in talking about George W. Bush.
But most students were not tuned into the election. Unlike some other years, there wasn’t a feeling of enthusiasm, anger or anxiety.
Then came the election’s aftermath.
On election night, Florida was called for Al Gore, then networks said it was “too close to call,” then said Bush won, then went back to the neutral position. And by the morning it was obvious a recount was needed because the race was so tight.
For those students and people elsewhere, the drama ramped up.
By the time the situation was resolved, Bush ended up the winner in Florida over Gore by 537 votes out of nearly 6 million cast. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader received 97,488 votes. With this math, Bush received 271 electoral votes, barely carrying the Electoral College (while losing the popular vote).
Many things happened in Florida that mattered then and mirror aspects of some other elections, perhaps even this year’s.
Two decisions made before election day in 2000 affected the outcome.
One was a purge of the voting rolls overseen by then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who was also co-chair of Bush’s Florida campaign. This was meant to remove felons, but the list was flawed and it wrongly disenfranchised thousands. Those individuals were disproportionately Black Americans, a group which tends to vote Democratic.
Second, Palm Beach County designed its ballot in a confusing way. Political scientists found that this “butterfly ballot” “caused more than 2,000 Democratic voters to vote by mistake for Reform candidate Patrick Buchanan, a number larger than George W. Bush’s certified margin of victory in Florida,” according to a study published in American Political Science Review in 2001.
And of course what happened after election day mattered. A recount began, leading to lawsuits and more.
As votes were being checked in Miami-Dade County, efforts were made by some to stop the count. Roger Stone, according to the History News Network, “organized phone banks that encouraged Miami Republicans to storm the downtown counting site.” In the “Brooks Brothers riot,” mostly well dressed men, many of whom flew down from Washington, D.C., for the Bush campaign, shook their fists, yelled and pounded on windows. They screamed “Stop the count! Stop the Fraud!” and, fearful, the canvassing board ended their recount.
On Dec. 8 the Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide count of “undervotes,” which were missed by ballot counting machines. But then the U.S. Supreme Court stopped that count because procedures across counties weren’t the same. Ultimately its 5-4 Bush v. Gore decision led to Bush winning Florida.
Democratic candidate Al Gore conceded and, as vice-president, presided over the Senate on Jan. 6, 2001 as it counted electoral votes.
Interestingly, among our current Supreme Court justices are three who worked for the Bush campaign when it brought its lawsuit against Gore — John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
What does the 2000 election have to do with today?
We certainly may again see intimidation and fraud claims.
Moreover, like what happened then, people have been wrongly removed from the voting rolls this year. In Virginia, some, such as American citizen Shantae Martin was told she couldn’t vote because the state thought she was a non-citizen.
Worse, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 order late last month allowing Virginia to purge rolls despite errors and despite the removals being, under law, too close to the election.
This year the Supreme Court may also make critical post-election rulings.
Back in 2000, I wondered if Bush v. Gore would decrease trust in the Supreme Court. It didn’t.
But that was a different time. There’s been reporting about Justice Clarence Thomas taking large undisclosed gifts and actions by some justices’ family members after the 2020 election, not to mention some very unpopular decisions overturning major precedents.
Since 2000 trust in the court has sunk and a controversial judicial election decision now would surely be received differently.
I don’t know what will happen after this year’s election. But I see that, while the drama of the past doesn’t simply repeat, it can resonate with the present.