FREMONT, Ohio -Disputed ballots. Electoral votes. It's happened more than once.
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center is opening an exhibit Friday that explores the history of controversial presidential races, focusing on five that ended in dispute.
It's on the people's minds
said Thomas Culbertson, the museum's director. If you look at the polls right now it is looking like a dead heat again.
The exhibit, titled The People's Choice? -Controversial Presidential Elections will highlight President Bush's election in 2000 along with the contested victories of Hayes in 1876, Thomas Jefferson in 1800, Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and John F. Kennedy in 1960.
The exhibit, which will run until July 4, will include punch-card ballots and butterfly ballots, like the ones used in Florida during the 2000 election, are also on display in the exhibit.
Visitors at the museum, which is located about 40 miles southeast of Toledo, also can vote for the presidential election system that they would prefer, choosing either a direct election, modifying the Electoral College or not changing the system at all.
The purpose is to get people thinking
Culbertson said.
Culbertson came up with the idea to retrace controversial presidential elections after Bush won the White House even though he received fewer votes than Al Gore.
The Electoral College has been the source of many problems that have come up
said Culbertson. Many people assume they're voting directly for the president
but you really aren't.
In the Electoral College system, each state's total of electors is equal to its representatives in Congress -270 electoral votes are needed to become president.
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