WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com)�A full three weeks after the 2000 national elections, at Final Call press time, American political observers and citizens alike were holding their breath, awaiting the one, decisive episode in the presidential melodrama which might signal the selection of Democratic Vice President Al Gore, or Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush as the next president.

Officially, only 537 votes, out of more than 6 million cast, separated the two men at the Florida polls on Nov. 7, but now several court cases�including a challenge Dec. 1 before the U.S. Supreme Court, and several Florida state-cases which will probably end up once again before that state�s Supreme Court�have divided the two aspirants and their supporters over the outcome in this the closest presidential election in U.S. history.

"I believe our Constitution matters more than convenience," Mr. Gore said in a brief nationally televised address Nov. 27. "So, as provided under Florida law, I have decided to contest this inaccurate and incomplete (ballot) count, in order to insure the greatest possible credibility for the outcome," he continued, explaining why he sent lawyers to Tallahassee to challenge the final vote certification and several election day irregularities throughout the state.

Gov. Bush has tried to project himself as the clear winner, despite charges that so many election irregularities may taint who eventually wins the election with charges that the election was "stolen."

The Gore camp alleged several election day violations, including: the undercount of thousands of votes from likely Gore supporters in one county; intimidation of the election board in highly Democratic Miami-Dade County by a chanting mob of angry anti-Gore demonstrators. The board voted to cancel a manual recount after demonstrators nearly stormed their courtroom; as well as several allegations of Voting Rights Act violations and attempts to frighten Black voters away from the polls, uncovered by the NAACP in hearings held in Florida after the tumultuous election day.
For their part, Black voters�whose record turnout at the polls despite efforts to suppress their participation swelled the vote total for Mr. Gore�were largely left out of the high-stakes drama which took place after election day.

Ballots were recounted by machines throughout the state and some by hand in several counties; the Florida slate of Electoral College delegates pledged to Gov. Bush was certified by Secretary of State Christine Harris (R); and lawsuits were filed challenging the certification of the results which gave Mr. Bush 25 electoral votes, there and 271 total. At least 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidency.

While it is still difficult to gauge the political fallout from the election for Blacks who voted even more strongly for Mr. Gore than they did for the re-election of President Clinton in 1996, the increased attention of Black voters to "voting their interests" may result in progress in other areas.
"One thing I hope will come from this, is a transfer of that (election day) energy into the economic arena," said Dr. Anderson Thompson, professor of history at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, "we might be forced to go in that direction.

"Our people know their interests a lot better now, and they were able to express it, at the point where people thought we were going in one direction, and we ended up going in another. It caught all the pollsters off guard," said Dr. Thompson.

Despite the heightened self-interest among Black voters, officially, Blacks have been left out of the prominent national deliberations and analysis of the political crisis.

"Black people are not in this orbit at all. Are not being considered one way or another at all," said Dr. Ronald Walters, professor of political science at the University of Maryland.

"You have to notice that Black people have not been material to the way (whites) want to decide the critical issues. The latitude for participation in critical decision making by Blacks is still almost as narrow as it was in the 19th century, when you had the notion of voting only among propertied white males."

The Gore camp, which Dr. Walters insists best represents most Black interests, has put most Black leaders into a single "box" which is not important to the bigger, national picture. "They have decided what roles Black people will play. They bring in some members of the Congressional Black Caucus down there to look at some ballots, and that�s about it. In the critical roles, there�s no Black people at all." The result, he confessed, is a continuation of what used to be known as the "Kitchen Cabinet," when leaders including Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune conferred informally in the "kitchen" at the White House with Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband, President Franklin Roosevelt.