There has never been an election quite like it – and there may never be one again.
The election of 2000 could very well doom that quaint constitutional artifact – the Electoral College – at least in its present, winner-take-all form in 48 of the 50 states. (Maine and Nebraska apportion their electoral votes according to the outcome in each congressional district; whichever presidential candidate wins the plurality of votes in a congressional district is awarded that district’s electoral vote. In other states, including New Jersey, whichever candidate wins statewide, even if only by a single vote, gets all of the state’s electoral votes.)
This election will prompt a rash of proposals to clean up the process of voting, to protect against the incidents of error, abuse and fraud that mark every election but take on far greater significance when the race is close and the results are contested. It almost certainly will cause election officials in Palm Beach County, Fla., to find a suitable replacement for their infamous "butterfly ballot." It might even convince various news organizations to exercise something resembling self-restraint in projecting winners and losers on future election nights.
With the presidential race decided (or, as the case may be, not yet decided) by razor-thin margins in state after state, with Rush Holt and Dick Zimmer producing yet another cliffhanger in the 12th Congressional District, with several other states being decided by narrow margins, one message from the 2000 election rings loud and clear:
Nobody – but nobody – can ever again use that tired old excuse for not voting, "My vote doesn’t matter."
Too busy to vote? Didn’t like any of the candidates? Called out of town suddenly on Election Day? Moved and forgot to change your registration? Car wouldn’t start? Kid got sick? Fine. OK. Fair enough. These and all the other lame excuses for not voting, all the convoluted rationalizations people come up with for failing to exercise the most important civic responsibility they possess in a democracy, may be unaffected by the extraordinary events of Nov. 7, 2000. But the myth that one vote doesn’t matter hasn’t just been shattered in this election; it has been smashed into a million pieces.
In the Holt-Zimmer race for Congress, by the time all the votes from the 69 municipalities in five different counties that comprise the 12th District are counted and recounted, together with all the absentee and provisional ballots, one vote could indeed make the difference. A single vote in each precinct would certainly have made a difference.
In Florida, Oregon, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Iowa and a half-dozen other states, a fraction of a percentage point separates the two presidential candidates. How many citizens of Albuquerque, Beloit and Council Bluffs thought their vote wouldn’t make a difference? How many of them couldn’t be bothered to show up at the polls?
Voting is not just a right but a privilege. Not voting is also a right, and people are privileged to exercise it if they so choose. In the aftermath of the 2000 election (which seems destined to last a whole lot longer than most aftermaths), those who have chosen to sit on their hands – or, as the expression goes, to vote with their feet – may want to reconsider their decision, and reassess their behavior, before the next election comes around. It’s one thing to experience an election where you think your vote might have made a difference. It’s quite another to sit out an election where you know your vote would have made the difference.
