Subject: Re: Who won the 2000 Presidential Election? Again?
From: "Steven F. Freeman" <stfreema@sas.upenn.edu>
Date: 8/19/2005, 8:10 AM
To: election-law@majordomo.lls.edu
CC: RJLipkin@aol.com, ethan.fletcher@yale.edu
Reply-to:
sf@alum.mit.edu


I donāt believe that any publications to date have captured the full magnitude
of just how far the official count deviated from the intent of the electorate
in the Florida 2000 presidential election ö recall that the exit polls
projected a Gore victory margin of 7-8%.

I closely analyzed that election while researching my current book on the
integrity of the 2004 US Presidential Election, and have completed a working
paper on it. Write to me if you would like a copy.

Steve Freeman
Scholar and Afiliated Faculty
Center for Organizational Dynamics
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
University of Pennsylvania

best email: sf@alum.mit.edu


Quoting ethan.fletcher@yale.edu:

Professor Lipkin,

It seems to me that to answer this question we must first define it
more precisely.  If the question is: "For which candidate did more
voters (in the deciding state(s)) leave polling places and submit
absentee ballots believing they had voted?" then there is little doubt
the answer is Gore.  If the question is a different one--did election
officials act appropriately? did courts act in good faith and fulfill
their proper institutional roles? etc.--then we've begun a much
larger, more complicated discussion.

The Miami Herald did a good piece looking at the issue relatively soon
after the election.  It ran, I believe, in December 2000 or January
2001.

Sincerely,

Ethan Fletcher
3L
Yale Law School

Quoting RJLipkin@aol.com:

In today's NY  Times, Paul Krugman insists that "the simple truth"
[is that] 'Al Gore won  the 2000 presidential election. Since
I'm unsure whether List members want to  reexamine this issue now,
I'd be happy to receive off-List answers. My question  is this:
Is Krugman's "simple truth" widely accepted by "election-law  experts"?

Thanks.
Bobby

Robert Justin  Lipkin
Professor of Law
Widener University School of  Law
Delaware