United States Elections 2000

Two reports issued Friday on the election night "debacle"--in which television networks prematurely called the winner of the presidential election--blamed both the networks and their source of polling data for playing fast and loose with the figures. A study commissioned by Cable News Network took all the networks to task for "recklessly endangering the electoral process" in their competition to be first with election results.

In voting to spare the life of Voter News Service, media executives said Friday that the polling service's computer system will be upgraded and redesigned in the hope of avoiding a repeat of November's embarrassing election-night errors. The news service, a consortium of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and Associated Press, also will try to figure out a way to assess the effect of the increased amount of absentee and early voting, officials said.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday that he will seek reelection next year, setting the stage for a political battle royal that likely will become a nationally watched referendum on his older brother's performance in the White House. Democrats inside and outside the state are eager to punish the governor for President Bush's narrow, and highly disputed, victory here last fall, which put him in the White House. Eight Democrats--including former Atty. Gen.

As many as 6 million votes went uncounted in the 2000 presidential election because of deficiencies in ballots, equipment and voter registration records, a study released Monday showed. "They found the problem more serious than we imagined . . . with perhaps 3 million to 6 million voters disenfranchised by the complications and uncertainties inherent in present technology," Caltech President David Baltimore said.

A Democratic leader accused Florida's top elections official of violating state law by allowing political work to be done in her office during last fall's presidential election. An initial review of computer files in the office of Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who also served as co-chairwoman of George W. Bush's Florida campaign, revealed documents endorsing Bush for president.

The Supreme Court's Bush vs. Gore ruling may have brought a quick end to the disputed presidential election of 2000, but the legal battle lives on, fought out in the pages of six books coming out this year. Most are written by law professors, who remain sharply split over whether the high court was right to halt the Florida recount. "Constitutional law professors form a different breed, with longer memories and deeper resentments," said University of Chicago law professor Richard A.

There they are, perhaps the most powerful voters in Campaign 2000, twirling along the linoleum dance floor as snow flurries fall outside and the Hrubes Band (an accordion player, a vocalist) turns "Me and Bobby McGee" into something akin to a polka. Mavis and Clayton Burgart fox trot their way past folding chairs and resting dancers.

Too often Election Day finds us all wishing we knew more about our ballot choices. And more than one in four of us say health care will be the top factor in deciding which presidential candidate gets our vote, according to public opinion polls. Fortunately, http://www.vote-smart.org can help us check out our favorite candidates' health-care positions in time for Tuesday's primary.

He seemed a classic candidate in the Jesse Ventura mold: Jon "the Illustrious" Stewart, another professional wrestler who tried to make a virtue of his political inexperience while running for Congress. But Stewart's campaign fizzled. After spending a mere $1,600, he dropped out of a crowded Republican race for an open House seat in Illinois and the GOP nomination went to a political insider in the state's primary this week.

The assignment was one of the biggest of J.C. Towns' photographic career: Snap the official campaign portrait of eastside Selma's leading politician, a man vying to become the city's first black mayor. For several weeks now, Towns' picture of the candidate has been plastered on billboards across this fabled Southern community, hallowed ground in the struggle for African American voting rights.