Hanging Chads costumes are back on the ballot this Halloween

Halloween 2001 was arguably one of the most politically charged spooky holiday events in human history as millions of Americans donned the “hanging chads” costume to remember the extremely controversial 2000 presidential race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, which was decided by a mere 537 votes.

Twenty-four years later, the hanging chads are back. However, this time the costumes appear to be worn by political trick-or-treaters from both sides of the aisle trying to remember a simpler time, rather than in protest over the results of an election.

“God, remember when presidential elections were won or lost based on how well senior citizens in Florida, with their shaky, arthritic hands, could fill in bubbles on a ballot with a pencil?” said Henry Lewis, a construction worker from Dallas, Texas. “Now, our politicians are kicking and screaming on Twitter about stolen elections and voter fraud weeks before the election even takes place. Like, shut the fuck up, lose with dignity, and disappear from the public eye, like Gore did.”

The term hanging chad became part of the American lexicon in November 2000 when the United States relied on analog punch card ballots to count votes. Sometimes, the little circles citizens had to fill in to cast their vote were not properly punched out by the hole-punchy machine which led to votes either not being counted properly or not counted at all, leading to weeks of controversy before it was ultimately decided that Bush won the election.

In the years since 2000, the government and country have gone out of their way to ensure that elections are as fair and uncontroversial as possible. Of course, that hasn’t stopped politicians from, as Lewis described, kicking and screaming on social media about how unfair losing a democratic election is. We all remember 2020, when then-President Donald Trump allegedly incited a riot on Capitol Hill by encouraging his followers to try and stop congress from validating the results of the election—then denying any wrongdoing because, well, he probably didn’t want to go to jail.

Four years later, Trump is up to his old tricks again. We’re one week away from election day and he’s already claiming the Democrats are attempting to steal the election (again) and committing voter fraud (again) despite evidence that election safeguards are working properly.

“You’re probably not going to have a perfect election system,” said Republican Trey Grayson, a former Kentucky secretary of state and the advisory board chair of the Secure Elections Project. “But if you’re looking for one that you should have confidence in, you should feel good about that here in America.”

And, while many Americans do feel confident in the security of the election, many people are concerned that purposeful attempts to undermine its integrity, like lighting mail-in ballot boxes on fire, will fuel the political discourse and ultimately result in more violent protest, or even worse.

“All I hear from politicians is that this behavior is not representative of who we are as a nation,” said Jack Johnson, wearing a hanging chads costume. “But after two assassination attempts, burnt ballot boxes, and people trying to cast votes for their dead mother, at what point do we say, ‘nope, this is exactly who we are?’ It’s gross that a nation so disillusioned with how incredible it is, can’t admit that there’s something wrong and we need to do something to fix it.”

Of course, the only way to fix these problems is to vote (in our safe and secure elections) for the candidate who you believe is best suited to lead our nation in the right direction. If you’re eligible to vote, but don’t know how or where, click here with more information.