In my career as a social scientist that now spans almost thirty years, I have never seen non-experimental data that told such an unequivocal story. And I have never seen so many analyses that converged on the same conclusion. As a result, I feel certain far beyond any reasonable doubt that at least 2000 Gore supporters mistakenly voted for Buchanan because of the design of the Palm Beach County butterfly ballot.
This result is very worrisome. Speaking as a political scientist, I believe that the legitimacy of our institutions is sorely taxed every time they fail to perform as advertised. One of the promises of democracy is that votes will be effective. In Palm Beach County, however, the votes of at least 2,000 voters were ineffective because of a poorly designed ballot. Moreover, these votes handicapped one candidate (Gore) and helped another (Buchanan), thus leading to questions about the fairness of the election.