When Elections Go Bad: The Law of Democracy and the Presidential Election of 2000

When Elections Go Bad: The Law of Democracy and the Presidential Election of 2000 contains four chapters. Chapters 1 and 3 explore the substantive boundary line between the kinds of interests in the election processes that the law treats as implicating federal constitutional (and statutory) issues, versus the kinds of interests the law treats as implicating only state interests. Given that every dispute over matter of voting could be considered a dispute over "voting rights," when does the pre-Bush v. Gore law treat a voting issue, in either state or federal elections, as rising to a level that implicates federal interests. Chapter 2 addresses the complex interplay between federal and state courts in resolving voting-rights claims. Chapter 4 explores the range of remedial possibilities courts have accepted in various contexts: ordering new elections; enjoining upcoming elections; statistical adjustments to vote totals - including the wonderfully named case of In Re the Purported Election of Bill Durkin; permanently enjoining a particular election practice - centered on a federal court case finding that punch-card balloting systems violate Sec. 2 of the Voting Rights Act; individual damages remedies; and criminal prosecutions. The materials narrate the legal events in Florida and include the two United States Supreme Court decisions in Bush v. Gore, the central Florida Supreme Court and lower court decisions, and the Eleventh Circuit litigation.