Election Ballot Problem Essay, Research Paper

The election of 2000 has showed America and it?s citizens a major problem in the election process. There are multiple levels of problems inside this election process. The major problem is with the way that the ballots are cast. Through out America old and tired methods are in use to record and tally the votes of Americans. This creates other problems inside the voting process. When votes are close between the candidates a recount is administered. There are no centralized rules or regulations regarding these recounts, thus different states and different counties have different policies. Without proper rules and regulations the recounting of ballots can cause confusion. During the election of 2000 there was one state in particular that cause a great deal of confusion. Florida?s votes were so close that Al Gore, the losing candidate, demanded a recount. Once the recount was administered the votes were even closer. Next Al Gore insisted a manual recount. Now the system was put to the test; the ballots have been through the unbiased machines two times. The ballots then were turned in for an opinionated manual recount. This causes the margin of error to increase. In such a conversional event as an election human opinion has no place. Also with the numerous people handling ballots the possibility of loosing a ballot or a ballot becoming unreadable grows greater. Their needs to be national standard set that will be followed without question. In the past few days there has been some movement, Florida named it?s certified winner as George Bush, thus making George Bush the president elect. Al Gore plans to contest these results because he feels that this is unfair. When is it going to end? This is the problem, without any centralized rules and regulations we are unable to end this election quickly and fairly. The 2000 Presidential election in America is a very conversional issue. Without any national standards for the recounts, the American people?s wishes are put on hold because of greedy candidates. They are putting their personal wishes ahead of what is best for the nation.