As tension continues to build in the presidential race between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, University professors disagree on how it will be remembered.In some previous elections, the electoral vote has not reflected the popular vote. Professors came to different conclusions about the significance of the 2000 election and how it will affect future elections.
Political science professor Priscilla Southwell said the days of the Electoral College are numbered.
“There will be an abolishment or reform of the Electoral College before 2004,” she said.
Southwell said an Illinois Democrat is working on a bill to change the election process because the race has generated concern about the Electoral College.
While Gore is leading the popular vote, a win for Bush in Florida will place him in the lead with electoral votes, which will ultimately decide the presidency.
“No matter what the actual output of the presidential election, no one wants to run the risk of it happening again,” Southwell said.
History professor James Mohr said the electoral system is still effective because of the laws in the Constitution that support it, but added that some past presidents won elections without actually gaining more than 50 percent of the popular vote.
Mohr also said the full impact of the 2000 election won’t be known until the outcome is declared.
“It’s much too early to tell,” he said. “It depends a lot on how they resolve it.”
Southwell said the last time the people and the electorate differed was 1888, when Benjamin Harrison won the electoral vote and the presidency against Grover Cleveland, who won the popular vote.
Mohr said the 1876 presidential election also caused controversy, and it has parallels to this year’s election. In 1876 ballots were disputed in Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. The presidential race was between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, then governor of New York.
“For months the country didn’t know who would be president,” Mohr said. “Congress set up a [15-member] electoral commission to determine who would be declared the winner.”
University history professor Daniel Pope said the commission consisted of five members each from the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Supreme Court.
The commission eventually sided with Hayes, who became the nineteenth president of the United States.
Southwell said the winner in 2000 will have a difficult time governing the United States because his victory will be by such a narrow margin, and because both houses of Congress are narrowly divided between the two parties.
“I wish this was over. It’s a disaster,” Southwell said. “If this kind of situation had happened in Russia, Yugoslavia or Chile, I do believe the U.S. would be rolling its eyes and saying this isn’t any way to run an election. I think the whole experience is quite embarrassing all around.”
Southwell said people 100 years from now will also remember this election for its premature media reports and voting irregularities.