Research Paper on:
Editor Michael Nelson's The Elections of 2000

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
which they produced. An astonishingly tight presidential contest stretched on without a winner for more than five weeks beyond election day, in the midst of vote recounts, legal challenges, and  the unprecedented involvement of the U.S. Supreme Court" (Anonymous The Elections of 2000, 2002; elof20.html). In this respect we saw a great deal of the political methods of the United  States put to the test as new ground was trod and old laws were challenged. In "The Elections of 2000," a work edited by Michael Nelson, we have numerous essays  which discuss various aspects of the elections that took place during the year 2000. In the following paper we examine some of the realities of the elections, discussing the validity  of the essays within Nelsons book. The Elections of 2000 As mentioned, the presidential election was the closest that history has perhaps ever seen in the United States.  And, interestingly enough, "the congressional elections were, if anything, even closer, reflecting an electorate that was split almost precisely down the middle on the question of who should govern" (Anonymous  The Elections of 2000, 2002; elof20.html). This reality tells us many things, not the least of which is that there was a powerful struggle between the parties during this election.  In many ways it seemed to be an incredibly heated battle between the democrats and republicans as each vied, perhaps more powerfully than before, for the majority position. This was  also the topic of the essay titled "The Nominations: The Return of the Party Leaders" written by Harold W. Stanley. While we have always seen the democrats and  the republicans battling for the majority vote, it seems that this particular election, according to Stanley, presented us with some very powerful and unique leaders. This is not to say