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Today, 08 November 2009

› Malema’s life in danger

› Bok player ratings

› Hofmeyr addresses Joost

› Bok captain heading home

› Approaching Normal

Yesterday, 07 November 2009

› Malema’s life in danger

› Leicester sting Bok Bs

› Eskom chair faces the axe

› Nedbank, ANCYL make up

› Hofmeyr addresses Joost

Four years after a closely fought US presidential election was decided by the Supreme Court, the structural problems plaguing the way Americans pick the world's most powerful leader have once again become all too evident.

Competing forecasts, complaints over exit polls, a candidate's refusal to concede defeat and the prospect of days of wrangling to determine a winner gave Tuesday's election an eerie resonance with the fabled photo finish of 2000.

Then it was Florida; this time it boiled down to the Midwestern state of Ohio, where Democrat John Kerry trailed President George W. Bush by 133 000 votes but hoped to make it up with provisional and absentee ballots.

For the most part, the election was remarkably trouble-free. Absent were shrill cries of massive voter fraud. The nightmare scenario of court challenges in several states never materialised.

Process flaws exposed

But if there is one thing the election of 2004 proved, it was that the potential for electoral chaos highlighted in 2000 remains very much alive every time the archaic US voting system runs up against a super-close result.

Few can forget the roller-coaster battle between Bush and Democrat Al Gore on November 7, 2000.

Shortly before 8pm (0000 GMT), all the major networks, using exit polls from a consortium known as Voter News Service, put Florida's 25 electoral votes in Gore's column and declared him the likely overall winner.

But VNS compiled its figures before polls closed in the state's strongly Republican panhandle. As those results came in, the networks made an unprecedented turnabout and proclaimed Florida too close to call.

Networks in turnaround

At around 2.15am (0615 GMT) the following day, the networks, led by the conservative Fox News, gave Florida and the White House to Bush. Gore was beaten 271 to 266 in the electoral vote contest and called Bush to concede, but the drama was far from over.

As the Republican's lead in Florida shrunk to just a few thousand votes, Gore, who was leading in the popular tally nationwide by more than half a million, called an incredulous Bush to say the race was still on.

An hour later, the networks again reversed themselves and said Florida was anybody's guess. Bush was ahead by 1784 votes out of nearly six million cast and a recount started, accompanied by fierce legal maneuvering on both sides.

Bush's margin was whittled down to a final 537 votes and the country held its breath as court challenges dragged on for weeks, making their way through the Florida court system before ending up in the US Supreme Court.

Dispute ended month later

The dispute came to an end on December 12, when the US Supreme Court ordered the Florida Supreme Court to devise a new, more equitable recount system but added that it had to be done that night.

With time having run out, Gore ultimately conceded for good, becoming the fourth man in US history to win the popular vote but lose the White House.

Volumes have been written about the 2000 election, which demonstrated a failure at several levels. A national inquiry commission was formed and calls rang out to simplify voting procedures and abolish the system of electors.

But many of the lessons appeared to have fallen on deaf ears. The 2004 exit polls were no better than those four years ago, fueling early speculation that Kerry was headed to a big victory, only to have his prospects dim as the night wore on.

The watchdog group Electionline.org said some improvements had been made since 2000 but questions remained about the widespread use of punch cards, the reliability of electronic voting systems, rules concerning absentee voting and other issues.

Both marshalled an army of lawyers to keep watch over the vote, raising the spectre of a half-dozen Floridas. But a congressional report said the government was ill-prepared to address allegations of mass fraud.

Several legal experts and analysts fretted that a repeat of 2000 could erode Americans' faith in the political process and worsen already bitter divisions within the country.

AFP