Landmark Supreme Court Cases

Presidential Elections

States are responsible for the administration of both their own and federal (including presidential) elections. States do this from a local level with elections being principally funded by more than 10,000 counties, cities, townships, and villages.* In order to become president, a candidate must have 270 electoral votes out of a total of 538. In the 2000 presidential election, Bush received 271 electoral votes. The dispute over his victory developed when he won the Florida electoral votes by a margin of less than half of one percent. After the first of three requested recounts, the tabulation came back in favor of Bush at even less of a margin than before. The difficulty that emerged in the Florida election recount was that each county used different types of ballots (e.g., electronic, push card, etc.) and had a different method of recounting votes. One of the benefits of state-run presidential elections is that it is less expensive than a federally administered presidential election process would be. However, without a national standard, each state can conduct elections in different ways, which can cause inaccuracy and problems as Bush v. Gore illustrates.

*Government Accountability Office. (2001). Perspectives on activities and challenges across the nation. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d023.pdf, p. 3.

To prepare for this Discussion:

 

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• Review the assigned pages of the online article “Perspectives on Activities and Challenges Across the Nation.” Pay particular attention to challenges in the state-run system of administering presidential elections, and to congressional authority to affect the administration of federal elections.
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• Review the case summary of Bush v. Gore in your course text, Landmark Supreme Court Cases: The Most Influential Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the full case located in the LexisNexis Academic database. Think about the degree to which state and federal governments have been and should be involved in the regulation and administration of presidential elections.
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• Review the articles “The Scope of Congressional Authority in Election Administration,” “Congress Tries its Hand at Fixing Elections,” and “Election Reform After HAVA: Voter Verification in Congress and the States.” Consider the role of Congress in the administration of presidential elections.
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• Think about the role of state governments in presidential elections and the strengths and limitations inherent in that role.
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• Reflect on the degree to which the federal government should be involved in the regulation and administration of presidential elections.

 

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 4 one strength and one limitation of the role of state governments in presidential elections. Then explain the degree to which you think the federal government should be involved in the regulation and administration of presidential elections and why. Be specific.