When there was still no clear winner in the 2000 U.S. election
'At stake is the legitimacy of the constitutional system'
Two days after voters had gone to the polls, no one knew who had won the U.S. election held on Nov. 7, 2000.
The race was just too close to call in some states, making it impossible to determine yet whether George W. Bush or Al Gore would succeed Bill Clinton as president.
Correspondent David Halton, reporting from Austin, Tex., had just finished talking to Peter Mansbridge on The National and said that Americans were feeling "a heck of a lot of frustration" with the situation.
"Unfortunately, this might feed into the general cynicism in this country towards politics in general," said Halton, noting that year's "very low turnout."
Allan Lichtman, chair of the department of history at American University in Washington, D.C., told Mansbridge "the legitimacy of the constitutional system" was at stake.
'Ultimate nightmare'
"Maybe this is the ultimate nightmare blowup of the Electoral College system," he said.
Lichtman suggested the uncertainty might prompt Americans to have a "serious discussion" about modifying how they elected a president — although it would be "very tough" to change the U.S. Constitution.
All that didn't mean Americans had a constitutional crisis on their hands, however, and that the constitutional procedures were taking place as they should.
"Even if it goes to court — litigants have the right to go to court — the courts are the arbiters of the fairness of elections," he said.
The election of 1876 had resulted in an even more "hotly contested dispute," he pointed out.
"We didn't get a president until two days before Inauguration Day," he said.
'We've got to be patient'
Back in the present, Lichtman said the 2000 dispute was likely to "stretch on" for weeks.
"We've got to be patient," he said. "I know 21st century Americans want results. Stay patient and wait."
"American presidents have passed much more difficult tests than this one. They've taken us through economic depressions and world wars," he added.
In the end, the presidency ultimately went to Bush after a protracted court fight that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
According to the Globe and Mail, the top court's ruling that a continuation of the recount of disputed ballots in Florida was unconstitutional meant that the state's 29 Electoral College votes went to Bush, pushing him above the threshold of 270 needed to win.
