ABSTRACT

Everyone who observed the 2000 election crisis was struck by the sheer unreadiness of every part of the system to deal with a close election. Recount and contest laws were not designed for statewide challenges. The relevant state deadlines did not mesh well with the federal schedule. Each county made its own decisions about what, when, or whether to recount. In performing the recounts the definition of a vote varied from county to county, and from official to official within the counties. Lawsuits materialized across Florida, urging judges to construct law that would overcome the alleged deficiencies of the statutes. The principal television networks also found themselves unready to deal with a very close election. Unable to handle extremely close results carefully and accurately, they dealt with them negligently and inaccurately�and loudly too�erring assertively again and again during the course of Election Night and thereby affecting the course of the very history they were supposedly only trying to report.

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