[Rick Lee]

I'm not so sure Gore would be POTUS if we really played by the popular vote rule. Think about the 300 or so vote margin in NM. Imagine you're driving to the polling station in NM around 6:00pm, which is an hour after the polls closed in east coast states. Say CNN has called some big states already and it looks like Gore has it locked up. Would you keep driving to the polls to vote? I would. But don't you think at least 300 people there would have just gone home or gotten out of line to leave? That's what happens when news stations call states in one time zone while polls are open in other time zones, especially since 2000 was so close.

And if we didn't go by the electoral college, would we go by a majority or pluralty of the popular vote? Clinton never got 50% of the popular vote and if he hadn't been president, Gore would be a back bencher Senator still trying to retire his 1988 pres. campaign deb.