In New York, the Tammany Hall machine dominated the election of city and state officials. "Boss Plunkitt" from William L. Riordan’s Plunkitt of Tammany Hall helped the Democrats capture elective positions in this manner:

"I know every man, woman, and child in the Fifteenth District, except them that’s been born this summer — and I know some of them too. I know what they like and what they don’t like, what they are strong at and what they are weak in, and I reach them by approaching at the side… I don’t trouble them with political arguments. I just study human nature and act accordin."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt abolished the political machines with his massive victories in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944 that moved Congress to adopt a constitutional amendment limiting presidential terms to a maximum of eight years or two four — year terms in February 1951.

The election on Nov. 2 will be decided by the majority vote of the 538 electors or 270 votes of the Electoral College, a number equivalent to 435 representatives, 100 senators and 3 electors of Washington, D.C.

Many American voters are unaware that they are voting for electors because their names don’t even appear on the ballot in about 34 of the 50 states.

The slate of electors chosen on Nov. 2 will then meet in their state capitals on "the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December" (or on December 13) to cast their vote for president. The results of this balloting will be sent to the president of the US Senate (Vice President Cheney). Sealed state ballots will be opened and counted at a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2005. At this session only the new members of Congress elected on Nov. 2 will attend the joint session.

Senators and Congressmen elected on November 2 begin their new term on January 3, 2005.

I asked my folks in New York, Ohio and Chicago if they voted for Bush or Gore in a direct election in November 2000. Their answer was a unanimous "yes."

I explained that their votes were counted for a slate of electors chosen by the Republicans and Democrats as identified by the picture and name of Bush or Gore.

The danger of an indirect presidential election in the US is demonstrated in the counting of votes in Florida, with 25 electoral votes (now adjusted to 27, based on the last census in 2000).

Democratic candidate Gore trailed Republican Bush by only 537 votes of the 5,825,043 votes cost. Gore petitioned for a recount based on defects in the counting machines.

The Florida court ordered a statewide manual recount of ballots that "when counted by machine had not shown any choice for president." The Bush campaign appealed immediately in the case that became Bush v. Gore.

On December 9, the Supreme Court justices ordered a temporary stay of the recount just as it was getting underway, the 5 to 4 vote revealing for the first time the deep split within the court.

The case was argued on December 11 and decided the following day. The court ruled that variations from county to county in the rules for counting the ballots amounted to a violation of the Constitution that guarantees equal protection.

There was no time to fix the problem, the majority said, so the recount that the court itself had suspended three days earlier could not resume. Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer each wrote vigorous dissenting opinions.

In the popular vote Gore beat Bush by 537,179 votes. With Florida awarded to Bush by the Supreme Court the score in the Electoral College was less than a whisper for Bush, 271 and for Gore, 266. Bush became president by just one vote over the majority of 270 votes of the 538 electors from 50 states.

In September 1969 the House passed a proposed constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college and provide a direct election of the president and vice-president.

Under the amendment if no candidate received 40 percent of the vote a runoff election between the top two presidential candidates would be held. Congress would set the date of the election and any runoff.

In 1970 a filibuster by opponents of direct election prevailed in the Senate that was prevented from voting on the proposal. After the proposal died in the Senate interest in direct election of the president waned.

After 1970 there was widespread reluctance to change a fundamental aspect of the US political system. Other arguments against the direct election are; 1) it would promote the formation of splinter parties; 2) fragmentation of American politics and destruction of the two-party system; 3) increase the temptation for fraud in vote counting, leading to prolonged recounts and chaos; 4) rob majority groups of their influence in big electoral-vote states and 5) tempt states to ease voter qualification standards in order to fatten the list of voters.

On a continent with four time zones voters in the East close the polls as California and Pacific Coast voters still cast their ballots. This situation gives rise to serious cause for complaints.

In Nov. 1980 Western Democratic candidates and political leaders complained sharply when TV networks declared Reagan the projected winner against Carter early in the evening while the polls were still open in the West Coast that discouraged (or stopped) many potential voters from voting.

Again in 1984, TV networks declared President Reagan the winner hours before the closing of polls in California, Oregon and Washington. The time difference between California and New York is about three hours-7 p.m. in New York is about 3:30 p.m. in California. (Comments are welcome at rvp@fastmail.ph.inter.net)