On November 14, the original deadline for reporting results, with the Volusia County recount complete, Bush held a 300-vote lead. [2] It was also the first time the Democratic candidate won Orange County since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. It would have made the election longer, yes, but was it REALLY unconstitutional? [4]:74. State results tallied on election night gave 246 electoral votes to Republican nominee Texas Governor George W. Bush and 255 to Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore, with New Mexico (5), Oregon (7), and Florida (25) too close to call that evening. rejected the decision of the us supreme court on the hand recount. Bush ultimately prevailed after a strenuous fight, including an especially brutal effort by the Bush campaign in the South Carolina primary. Florida Attorney General Robert Butterworth in his advisory opinion to county canvassing boards wrote:[60]. An earlier study by a different media consortium reached similar conclusions. Under the FAC, a ballot with any other name written in (including Bush and Gore, who were not qualified as write-in candidates) was not an overvote, but rather a valid vote for the candidate whose name was marked by the voter. They had won Florida, they insisted. Posted 7 years ago. On November 11, it joined a group of Florida voters in suing in federal district court for a preemptive injunction to stop all manual recounting of votes in Florida. These convoluted ballot designs led to calls for election and voting reform, and some states installed electronic voting machines to ensure greater accuracy in future elections. Bushs announcement came as roughly 15 percent more votes needed to be counted -- and they were from predominantly blue counties. [84] A Gore win was impossible without a recount of overvotes, which he did not request; however, faxes between Judge Terry Lewis and the canvassing boards throughout the state indicated that Lewis, who oversaw the recount effort, intended to have overvotes counted.[81]. Between May 1999 and Election Day 2000, two Florida secretaries of state, While the Bush campaign opposed the Gore campaign's requests for manual recounts in four heavily Democratic counties, they quietly accepted manual recounts from four Republican-leaning counties. Direct link to Edward (Eddie) W.'s post One big question that I h, Posted 2 years ago. Among the many bad things aboutBush v. Gore, one of the worst is it takes, like, till page seven until you find out the outcome of the case, Ron Klain, a Gore aide,toldthe Atlantic. Bush also probably would have won had the state conducted the limited recount of only four heavily Democratic counties that Al Gore asked for, the study found. Before long, other networks were hearing the objections and reaching the same conclusion. [83] Under the other standards used in the study, Bush's margin of victory increased as looser standards were used. Brady, Henry E.; Collier, David (2004). The State of Florida ordered a recount of the 2000 votes because (3 points) a too many counties used the "butterfly" ballot against the state law b George Bush did not believe that the state had run a fair election c Al Gore did not believe that the state had run a fair election d state law required a recount when the results were close It would of taken too much time and money to do a complete re vote. Meanwhile, there was a heavy backlash in the Cuban-American population against Democrats during the Elian Gonzalez dispute, during which Janet Reno, President Bill Clintons Attorney General, ordered the six-year-old Cuban refugee to be returned to Cuba. However, his presence as governor in Florida did help George W. Bush a lot. Once the closeness of the election in Florida was clear, both the Bush and Gore campaigns organized themselves for the ensuing legal process. Direct link to Jeff Kelman's post How long would the recoun, Posted 7 years ago. [10] Voters from reliably Democratic states in the Northeast had also been migrating to Florida since the 1950s. [1], The controversy began on election night, November 7, 2000, when the national television networks, using information provided to them by the Voter News Service, an organization formed by the Associated Press to help determine the outcome of the election through early result tallies and exit polling, first called Florida for Gore in the hour after polls closed in the peninsula (in the Eastern time zone) but about ten minutes before they closed in the heavily Republican counties of the panhandle (in the Central time zone). When we revisit the gut-wrenching night of Nov. 7, 2000, we recall that the TV networks looked at exit polls and sample swing precincts from Florida and declared it a win for Al Gore, who was the incumbent vice president and the Democratic nominee for president. Both campaigns immediately dispatched teams of lawyers to Florida. An elector from the District of Columbia "cast a blank ballot", effectively abstaining, so DC cast only 2 of its 3 electoral votes for a candidate for both President and Vice President. George W.. They argue that American democracy is a far stricter, Lockean, Anglo-American system based on the letter of the law and a successful vote cast by a rational, responsible voter. In a chorus that echoes those voices of 2000, Florida Republicans (and indeed the GOP generally) are expressing dismay at the recount of 2018. At the time, he urged caution, but in the heat of the moment, NPR like other media organizations called the state for Gore. Decisions by some canvassing boards to count illegal overseas absentee ballots. The results were 49% for Gore and 40% for Bush, with 11% uncertain or not wishing to respond.[86]. Africa? The Palm Beach Post put it more dramatically: He couldnt have caught George W. Bush even if his two best chances for an official recount had played out. Judge Robert Rosenberg of the Broward County Canvassing Board uses a magnifying glass to examine a dimpled chad on a punch card ballot on November 24, 2000 during a vote recount in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Further, counties and precincts with large black populations disproportionately had technologies where ballots would predictably go uncounted. The results of the 2000 U.S. presidential election are provided in the table. What were the long-term consequences of the 2000 election? This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 18:06. The Florida Supreme Court ordered only a recount of so-called "undervotes," about 62,000 ballots where voting machines didnt detect any vote for a presidential candidate. Engelhardt, Joel and Elliot Jaspin and Christine Stapleton. (Three other tallies that are not statewide votes are also in the balance as the recount begins.). A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center, Under the two most likely scenarios, Bush Wins Florida, Florida voter errors cost Gore the election. Charges of conflict of interest were leveled by both sidesBushs brother Jeb was the governor of the state and Secretary of State Katherine Harris was cochair of Bushs Florida campaign, while Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth headed the Gore campaign. One big question that I have: Why did the Supreme Court decide a recount was unconstitutional? About 3:00 am Gore called a stunned Bush to retract his concession. There were two main issues:[55][56][57][58]. [15]. What was the primary election-year problem in Florida? The Gore campaign sued to force Miami-Dade County to continue its recount, but the Florida Supreme Court refused to consider the request. The NORC study (see below) did not address either of the concerns about overseas absentee ballots and Nassau County's certification change, as their effects were already included in the baseline totals. Regarding the second issue, the court ruled that the statutory scheme must be interpreted in light of the Florida state constitution's declaration that "all political power is inherent in the people," with any ambiguities therefore construed "liberally." Kohut was among those who saw this flaw even in 2000. The Associated Press, 11 Nov 2001. The margin in Florida had shrunk to a sliver and a recount seemed in order. appealed the florida supreme court's decision to allow a hand recount. Judge Robert Rosenberg of the Broward County Canvassing Board uses a magnifying glass to examine a dimpled chad on a punch card ballot on November 24, 2000 during a vote recount in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Want to feel old? Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Palm Beach County since the county's founding in 1909. The final decision was based on just a few hundred votes in Florida. Why or why not? George W. Bush received fewer popular votes than Albert Gore Jr., but received a majority of electoral votes. [82] The post-controversy recounts revealed that, "if a manual recount had been limited to undervotes, it would have produced an inaccurate picture of the electorate's position."[4]. The standards that were chosen for the NORC study ranged from a "most restrictive" standard (accepts only so-called perfect ballots that machines somehow missed and did not count, or ballots with unambiguous expressions of voter intent) to a "most inclusive" standard (applies a uniform standard of "dimple or better" on punch marks and "all affirmative marks" on optical scan ballots). On December 12, the same day as the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Florida House approved awarding the state's electoral votes to Bush, but the matter was moot after the Court's ruling. The recount was in progress on December 9 when the United States Supreme Court, by a 5 to 4 vote (Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer dissenting), granted Bush's emergency plea for a stay of the Florida Supreme Court recount ruling, stopping the incomplete recount. All were pledged to and voted for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney:[17]. Florida, a swing state, had a major recount dispute that took center stage in the election. Judges are either elected or politically appointed, so probably not in the way you are trying to get at. decided a hand recount could not be done in time for the electoral college vote Escambia County also reported completing its recount that day but did not include all of its precincts. Print and broadcast media cited often contradictory exit-polling numbers, and the races in Oregon and New Mexico would remain too close to call for some days. Do you think the Supreme Court was right to halt the recount in Florida? Former Vice President Al Gore evoked the ghosts of the 2000 election -- when he battled Republican nomineeGeorge W. Bushfor the White House -- as reporters asked him to comment on the state of the 2020 presidential race between Democratic nomineeJoe BidenandPresident Donald Trump. Nine other counties said that it was a possibility, while 49 counties said that they would not have counted reclaimable overvotes per the court's order. The longstanding case law in Florida [ ] has held that the intent of the voters as shown by their ballots should be given effect. Floridas electoral votes enabled Bush to win the presidency. George W. Bush (R) & Dick Cheney (R) v. Al Gore (D) & Joe Liberman (D) No candidate won a majority in the 2000 election. On December 9, 2000, four counties (Leon, Liberty, Madison, Manatee) completed recounts of undervotes ordered by the Florida Supreme Court, identifying a small number of new votes. Rowman & Littlefield. The vote had been announced by Florida's secretary of state. An official recount might well have come up with yet a third set of numbers. Corrections? The 2000 presidential election was a pivotal moment in history that ended up with a recount in Florida. As a result of the state's contract with Database Technologies, "173,000 registered voters in Florida were permanently wiped off the voter rolls. Most of the variation occurred in Votomatic overvotes, the least likely ballots to yield votes in a recount. Three days later, concluding (72) that a fair statewide recount could not be performed in time to meet the December 18 deadline for certifying the states electors, the court issued a controversial 54 decision to reverse the Florida Supreme Courts recount order, effectively awarding the presidency to Bush (see Bush v. Gore). The Florida recount was the subject of the 2008 television film Recount, which aired on HBO. [74][75][76], The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, sponsored by a consortium of major U.S. news organizations, conducted the Florida Ballot Project, a comprehensive review of ballots collected from the entire state, not just the disputed counties that were recounted. County officials tried to discern voter intent through a cloud of hanging chads (incompletely punched paper ballots) and pregnant chads (paper ballots that were dimpled, but not pierced, during the voting process), as well as overvotes (ballots that recorded multiple votes for the same office) and undervotes (ballots that recorded no vote for a given office). At the time, Republicans expressed dismay at the idea of a recount. However, Kohut noted it might also mean that a disproportionate number of these Democratic-leaning groups were voting early, or that a disproportionate number were being represented in the exit polls. Florida had 25 electoral votes and became the focus of a court battle over the outcome of the election. Africa? Bush led Gore in Florida by 1784 votes. The outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election was not known for more than a month after balloting because of the extended process of counting and recounting Florida's presidential ballots. [4] According to The Palm Beach Post, "State lawmakers decided to weed out felons and other ineligible voters in 1998 after a Miami mayoral election was overturned because votes had been cast by the convicted and the dead. Orange County then performed a hand segregation and determined that these votes numbered 184 for Bush, 249 for Gore and 79 for other candidates. Some have argued that awarding the electors in this manner would be illegal. A January 2001 review by the Palm Beach Post of those "set-aside" ballots determined that 4318 were "unambiguous" valid votes. Gore, as Bill Clintons vice president for eight years, was the clear favourite in the primary to win the Democratic nomination. Half of the overvotes in Duval County had one presidential candidate marked on each page, making their vote illegal under Florida law. Optical-scan counties were the only places in the study where Gore gained more votes than Bush, 1,036 to 775. By November 10 the machine recount was complete, and Bushs lead stood at 327 votes out of six million cast. Gore called Bush to concede the election, but in the early hours of the following morning it became apparent that the Florida race was much closer than Gores staff had originally believed. On November 21, the Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously that manual counts in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties must be included and set 5:00p.m. on November 26 as the earliest time for certification. Among those making that call were ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and The Associated Press. Al Gore conceded the election to Bush, but disagreed with the US Supreme Court's ruling. Direct link to ArmstronMakenna's post Shouldn't the electoral c, Posted 6 years ago. do not count any votes for the marked candidate (4): Counties that count votes for the marked candidate if the write-in is. With Bush at 246 electoral votes and Gore at 266, the Florida results likely determined the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. The Florida vote was ultimately settled in Bush's favor by a margin of 537 votes when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Bush v. Gore, stopped a recount that had been initiated upon a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court. She was the Florida secretary of state, in charge of legally certifying winners in any statewide vote. Gore called Bush to concede the election, but in the early hours of the following morning it became apparent that the Florida race was much closer than Gores staff had originally believed. [78] The 175,010 ballots examined contained undervotes (votes with no choice made for president) and overvotes (votes made with more than one choice marked). Directed by Jay Roach, it starred Kevin Spacey as Ron Klain, Bob Balaban as Benjamin Ginsberg, Ed Begley Jr. as David Boies, Laura Dern as Katherine Harris, John Hurt as Warren Christopher, Denis Leary as Michael Whouley, Bruce McGill as Mac Stipanovich, and Tom Wilkinson as James Baker. Possible reasons include, but are not limited to, ambient humidity, feeder misalignment and scanner light sensitivity. As the Electoral College vote took shape on election night, with the results piling up from around the country, it was clear the. hide caption. USA Today, The Miami Herald, and Knight Ridder commissioned accounting firm BDO Seidman to count undervotes. Bush v. Gore was a case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court in which that court reversed a Florida Supreme Court request for a selective manual recount of ballots cast in the U.S. presidential election of 2000. Updates? Gore garnered 255 electoral votes to Bushs 246, but neither candidate won the 270 electoral votes necessary for victory. According to their results, Bush won under stricter standards and Gore won under looser standards. IF the results were "scattered", who would officially be president? In effect, the latter ruling made Bush president. That phrase is being invoked a lot in light of this year's ultra-tight Florida statewide elections. Furthermore, the number of undervotes correlates with how well the punch-card machines are maintained, and not with factors such as race or socioeconomic status. Map of the United States showing the number of electoral votes at stake in each state, colored red or blue according to whether Bush (red) or Gore (blue) won the state. For those with memories going back four decades, all this was no accident. Cantal Asia? Circle Countries that came under the rule of a fascist government and dictator before WWII began It also stayed the state certification to November 26. The official result was finally decided by Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of State, when she was forced to certified the . That's all that separated Democrat Al Gore and his Republican challenger George W. Bush when, on November 26, 2000, three weeks after Election Day, the state of. By late November the Florida state canvassing board certified Bush the winner by 537 votes, but the election still was unresolved, as legal battles remained. [81] Florida State University professor of public policy Lance deHaven-Smith observed that, even considering only undervotes, "under any of the five most reasonable interpretations of the Florida Supreme Court ruling, Gore does, in fact, more than make up the deficit". Asked how many votes he would guess Buchanan legitimately received in Palm Beach County, he said, "I think 1,000 would be generous. A full, official recount of all votes statewide could have gone either way, but one was never conducted. Such explanations did little to lessen the sense of anger among black Democrats. BDO Seidman's results, reported in USA Today, show that under the strictest standard, where only a cleanly punched ballot with a fully removed chad was counted, Gore's margin was three votes. [1] The majority held that no alternative method could be established within the discretionary December 12 "safe harbor" deadline set by Title 3 of the United States Code (3 U.S.C. The next day, the Florida Supreme Court allowed manual recounts in Palm Beach and Broward Counties to continue but left it to a state judge to decide whether Harris must include those votes in the final tally. After an intense recount process and the United States Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, Bush won Floridas electoral votes by a margin of only 537 votes out of almost six million cast (0.009%) and, as a result, became the president-elect. "[4] A physical mark on a ballot, at or near a designated target, is such an indication. I have heard that Jeb Bush rigged the decision in favor of his brother, when Gore should have become the 43rd president. "The states highest officials responsible for ensuring efficiency, uniformity, and fairness in the election failed to fulfill their responsibilities. If they did not send their electoral votes to Congress before the official the deadline to do so, neither Bush nor Gore could have reached 270 electoral votes and a contingent election would have taken place in the House of Representatives for President and in the Senate for Vice President, which would have been super messy and therefore everyone worked hard to avoid that situation. The next day, Gore sued under Florida's statutory construct of the "contest phase". It pitted Republican candidate George W. Bush, then governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush (1989-1993), and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then Bill Clinton's Vice President. Cox News Service, 11 Nov. 2001. "[51], Although Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said on November 9 that "Palm Beach County is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why Pat Buchanan received 3,407 votes there",[52] Buchanan's Florida coordinator, Jim McConnell, responded by calling that "nonsense", and Jim Cunningham, chairman of the executive committee of Palm Beach County's Reform Party, responded, "I don't think so. Upon such an overvote, the entire vote for that office shall be void and shall not be counted. Expert Answers. The Bush campaign quickly filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to delay the recounts until it could hear the case; a stay was issued by the court on December 9. Ultimately, it came down to just 537 votes out of six million cast. But in 2000, the prize was the presidency of the United States. According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, "the vast majority of issues in Florida during the 2000 election were caused by an overall lack of leadership in preserving voting rights.". in answer to "Would the county accept a write-in overvote if the write-in text area contained a non-qualified candidate?". In a statewide election decided by hundreds, maybe only dozens, of votes, the limitations of the voting machinery compounded with sometimes sloppy custody of the ballots and the slight but measurable biases of allegedly neutral human tabulators make getting precise vote totals virtually impossible. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Shouldn't the electoral college be scrapped then? Subsequent statements by Lewis and internal court documents support the likelihood that overvotes would have been included in the recount. In the 2000 Election, the State of Florida officials, A. declared Al Gore the winner when the recount deadline passed, what was harriet tubman beat know for? Dr. Gary King of Harvard University applied statistical modeling to determine that the best estimate for the impact of illegal votes would reduce the certified vote margin for Bush from 537 to 245. It won Outstanding Television Movie at the Primetime Emmy Awards, with Roach winning Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special, and Dern a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress Series, Miniseries or Television Film. In the Election of 2000, Florida was (5 points) Select one: a. first to submit state election results b. a swing state with challenged votes c. overwhelmingly in support of Bush d. overwhelmingly in support of Gore 2 See answers Advertisement HistoryGuy The Republicans appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 7-2 to end the Florida court's ordered recount. But in 2000, the prize was the presidency of the United States. Specifically, the use of different standards of counting in different counties violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. For the results of the subsequent election, see United States presidential election of 2004. George W. Bush 's two presidential election campaigns (2000, 2004). The 2000 presidential election between George W Bush and Al Gore was the closest election in modern history with the results hinging on voters in South Florida. 34K 2.2M views 4 years ago #HistoryChannel Learn how Florida ended up determining whether Al Gore or George W. Bush would win the U.S. presidency in 2000. 2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida, NORC-sponsored Florida Ballot Project recount, County-by-county standards for write-in overvotes in 2000.

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