Jeff Greenfield's political yet comical novel, The People's Choice, takes a strange chain of events and propels the country into complete pandemonium. Although the events may have seemed unlikely at the books debut in 1995, the 2000 real-life battle for power between Bush and Gore leaves the reader concerned with the current American political system. While the book differs from the recent election in several ways, its striking similarities and comparable media treatment make Greenfield's novel a realistic possibility.
Without a doubt, the most similar concern in the novel and in the 2000 presidential election is the controversy surrounding the Electoral College. Although most people would not necessarily consider the Electoral College a problem, the system's glitches are brought to light in both instances. Following the death of MacArthur Foyle, Greenfield's ill-fated popular vote winner, the office of President of the United States is equivocal. The Republican Party simply bumps up Foyle's dim-witted yet thoughtful running mate, Theodore Block, for the elector's presidential choice. When Dorothy Ledger, an elector from Michigan, brings up the troubling question of whether her fellow electors would have to follow through with their party's urgings, chaos ensues. The similarities begin here. In the fictitious account as well as the 2000 election, popular vote is cast aside and the candidates and staff start scrounging for electoral votes. .
In 2000's popular vote, Bush ended up with 47.87% of the vote while Gore narrowly defeated him with 48.38% ("Presidential Election of 2000, Electoral and Popular Vote Summary"). The race for the 270 electoral votes that would lead one man to victory had commenced. The novel poses a similar situation for Block, whose staffers must find away to prevent the electors from voting for a dead man, a democrat, or the Speaker of the House. In the Bush/Gore controversy, Bush managed to collect the majority of electoral votes although he did not win the popular vote.
