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The Role of the Courts; The Role of the Media; The Roll of the Dice
(Download full report in pdf form)

The extraordinary 2000 presidential election poses urgent questions of the most fundamental sort for American democracy. Academic, legal, media, and other thoughtful commentators from across the country discussed some of the most pressing issues from election 2000 at a conference hosted by Northwestern University's School of Law, Medill School of Journalism, Institute for Policy Research, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and the Joyce Foundation. Transcripts of the keynote address and all panel discussions can be found below.

Washington Post national political correspondent David Broder began the conference Thursday, January 11, with a keynote address titled "Is America Ready for Representative Government?" which was presented by Medill as part of the Crain G.D. Crain Jr. Lecture Series. The conference continued with four panel discussions on Friday, January 12, at the Law School.
Transcript of Broder's talk.

Susan Herbst, chair and professor of the Northwestern Department of Political Science, arranged and moderated the first panel titled "Beyond Pregnant Chads: Lessons from 2000 for the Conduct of Elections." The panel featured Craig Donsanto, director of the Election Crimes Branch at the U.S. Department of Justice; Ronnie Dugger, founding editor of The Texas Observer; Craig Fox, associate professor of management at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business; and Ken Shotts, assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University. Panelists discussed the use of out-of-date equipment and the hard-to-understand butterfly ballots in several contested Florida counties.
Transcript of "Beyond Pregnant Chads"

Northwestern Law professor and former dean Robert W. Bennett arranged and participated in the second panel titled " Choosing the American President: Does the Electoral College Remain Serviceable?" Political scientists including David Abbott, co-author of Wrong Winner: The Coming Debacle in the Electoral College; Judith Best, Distinguished Teaching Professor of political science at the State University of New York; and Nelson Polsby, Heller Professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley, discussed the continued viability of the Electoral College. Patricia Conley, assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University, moderated the panel.
Transcript of "Choosing the American President"

The third panel discussion titled "The Media in the Eye of an Electoral Storm" featured local and national news media including (pictured above from left) Lucy Morgan, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist of the St. Petersburg Times; Beth Fouhy, executive producer of the Political Department of CNN; Laura Washington, editor and publisher of The Chicago Reporter; and Marty Plissner, former political director at CBS News. Ginny Carroll, associate professor at Medill, arranged and moderated the discussion about taking responsibility for announcing a winner too soon on election night. Panelists also discussed the media's important role in making sense of the chaos that ensued.
Transcript of "The Media in the Eye of an Electoral Storm"

The final panel, "The Courts and the Election of the President," arranged and moderated by James B. Speta, assistant professor of law at Northwestern, featured a discussion about the Supreme Court's role in the election process.

A crowd of more than 200 listened as panelists such as Steven G. Calabresi, George C. Dix Professor of Constitutional Law at Northwestern; (pictured above with Speta from left) Elizabeth Garrett, professor and Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs at the University of Chicago Law School; Richard A. Posner, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Seventh Circuit; and Thomas W. Merrill, John Paul Stevens Professor of Law at Northwestern, discussed the future implications of the Court's decision to become involved in the disputed recount.
Transcript of "The Courts and the Election of the the President"

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