LECTION 2000 WILL not produce a president with a mandate, but it has already produced a mandate for reform. Big changes are needed in three major areas.
Voting: Although it is fundamental to democracy, the process of gathering and counting votes is now largely left to local officials. Florida shows the anomalies.
Republicans, who usually like government to act at the lowest level possible, rightly complain that some Florida counties are using different standards, so that a ballot that is recorded in one place would be tossed out in another. Democrats rightly complain that a county official disenfranchised thousands of voters by creating the confusing ''butterfly'' ballot - a design that never would have passed a higher review. In a presidential election, this is intolerable.
The answer may not be for Congress to dictate a uniform national ballot, but it should get to work right away to create standards, preferably though a bipartisan commission.
To begin, the punchcard system that has proved so problematic in Florida should be banned, as it has been in Massachustts and elsewhere. Other steps may also prove useful, such as computer voting and switching Election Day from Tuesday to a weekend.
The nation's basic democratic goal - to have as many people as possible vote and to have each vote count - has proved to be maddeningly elusive.
Calling: Network officials have already been summoned to tell Congress about their bungled performance on election night. Like sheep, all the major networks called Florida wrong not once but twice, demonstrating a lack of judgment and of independence.
It is the networks' job to report news, not make it. They should instantly move to a system by which each collects its own data and analyzes it without reference to whatever scoops or blunders its competitors are airing. When races are close, they should deemphasize exit polls and consider actual votes.
Electing: It is one of the glories of a free society that several people have come forward at this historic time to argue the unarguable - the benefits of the Electoral College. They say it forces candidates to pay attention to smaller states and that it avoids the prospect of a messy national recount.
But this campaign proved that the Electoral College now sends the candidates only to battleground states while they ignore voters in states that are safely in either camp. Recent hints of attempts to change the votes of individual Electoral College members add a compelling new reason to dump the process.
This year, Gore's popular vote margin would be enough to avoid a national recount. Even if one were needed, it would be better than swearing in a loser.
