Politics and elections 99
The form of the ballot is also a matter of state law, and it is difficult to
assess the importance of differing practices in the states on the working of
the electoral system. The ‘long ballot’ results from the great number of state
and local offices to be filled. Ballot papers reached ludicrous proportions – at
the extreme they could be six feet long and contain a thousand names. Vot-
ing machines have now replaced the ballot paper nearly everywhere, and
have cut down corrupt practices at election time, but even these machines
can be rigged if election officials are corrupt. County election officials can
make important decisions regarding the procedures to be used, including
the design of ballots. A variety of differing voting machines are in use, each
with different characteristics. The presidential election of 2000 hung upon
the outcome of the vote in Florida and the inefficiency of the punch card
machines used in that state, which together with alleged dubious practices
by some election officials, caused turmoil.
The introduction of machines has greatly speeded up the counting of the
votes, and, together with the introduction of computers, has created an elec-
tion problem possibly unique to the United States. The polls close at 7 p.m.
in Connecticut, on America’s eastern seaboard, but because of the time dif-
ference it is then only 4 p.m. in California. Within a short time of the end of
voting in the East the television sets across the nation are giving out the com-
puter’s predictions of the election result, and yet there are millions of people
still to vote in the Western states. How does this affect their behaviour? Do
the supporters of the candidates whose defeat has just been predicted lose
heart and ensure defeat, or are their party workers spurred to new efforts,
while the supporters of the apparent victor become overconfident and lethar-
gic as they have presumably already won?
Campaign finances
The American political system involves more electioneering than any other in
the world; so many different offices to fill, at so many different levels – prima-
ry elections, run-off elections, congressional elections, presidential elections,
state and local elections. These electoral battles involve the expenditure of
huge sums of money. It has been estimated that election expenditures by
candidates for the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives
totalled over $4 billion in 2004. To gain re-election President George W. Bush
spent $359 million, and his opponent, John Kerry, spent $285 million. The
total expenditures on the presidential campaign and the national conven-
tions were more than $1 billion, 56 per cent greater than four years earlier.
Candidates in the primaries raised $673.9 million seeking nomination. In
addition to the spending by candidates and on the conventions, individuals,
parties and other groups spent $192.4 million advocating the election or de-
feat of presidential candidates in the campaign of 2004.
The vital importance of the media, especially television, and coast-to-coast
campaigning by the candidates, each with a large retinue of advisers, speech