The George W. Bush Years

The voting resulted in a virtual tie between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. The two candidates ended the night with the Bush campaign ahead by an infinitesimal 1,787 votes out of six million cast. Under Florida law, if the margin is within 0.5 percent, a machine recount is mandatory. That recount took place and the Bush lead dropped to 327 votes. During the count, a large number of ballots were not included because the ballots could not be read by the tabulating machines. Some of the paper ballots had not been punched all the way through and others had only been indented slightly. They became famous as “hanging chad” and “pregnant chad” in the press. The Gore campaign requested hand recounts in four counties that were traditionally supportive to Democrats. There were other issues with the ballots, but the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, tried to certify the election by the statutory deadline of November 14. When the recount wasn’t finished by that date, the Florida Supreme Court stepped in and enjoined the Secretary from certifying the election and the recounts continued.

Legal teams from both political parties filed some 50 individual lawsuits over the next month. On December 8, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a state-wide manual recount. The following day, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in and issued a stay that stopped the recount. It heard oral arguments and then, on December 12, decided to reverse the lower court’s decision and halted the recount. The high court ruled (7-2) that the recount violated the “equal protection” clause of the constitution. It also decided (5-4) that the actions of the Florida Supreme Court had, in effect, created new election law, and that was the duty for the state legislature. The majority of the justices also felt a recount could not be held in time to select electors and meet the federal guidelines.

The court awarded Florida’s 25 Electoral votes to the Republicans and that gave George W. Bush enough electoral votes nationwide to become the 43rd President of the United States.