Drew: The electoral system was basically ignored by both sides until recently; it's only one of two times in history it's really mattered at all, and the other one is basically ancient history now. It isn't a Republican system, just a bad one, and one they're all for so long as it means they get their way. Which is pretty typical of politicos.
Kaz: Dunno what the story is there, but they just plain didn't have these systems in place during the 2000 election- they were adopted at the state level nationwide as a result of the election deal. Florida, at the time, used paper ballots. Possible they were doing a test run there and it went funky or something, I dunno.
Bob: Wouldn't that be nice? However, you and I know full well that it'd have ended up being a weighted die.