Gore had first called Bush to congratulate him on his victory, called again to rescind the concession. But as more votes were counted, Bush edged into the lead later in the night, prompting networks to renounce their projections and name Florida as undecided. Then they called the Sunshine State for Bush, which was followed by a private concession by Gore that was itself soon rescinded. Disputes erupted over the accuracy and reliability of election technology in the state, with confusion over butterfly ballots (ballots that have names on both sides), punch card voting machines, and hanging chads (punch card ballots that were only partially punched). With the election effectively ended, Floridas 25 electoral votes were awarded to George W. Bush, whose lead in the state stood at 327 votes out of six million cast after a machine recount in November. It was sponsored by the Associated Press, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, St. Petersburg Times, Palm Beach Post, Washington Post and the Tribune Co., which owns papers including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun. [4], An analysis of the NORC data by University of Pennsylvania researcher Steven F. Freeman and journalist Joel Bleifuss concluded that, no matter what standard is used, after a recount of all uncounted votes, Gore would have been the victor. It was governed by Jeb Bush, a staunch conservative[8] and George W. Bush's brother. Students also viewed. On December 12, 2000, in a 72 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Florida Supreme Courts decision that manual recounts of ballots should continue in some counties, holding that the various methods and standards of the recount process violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. 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. Bush led Gore in Florida by 1784 votes. ballots recorded by the assigned review coders as either having "multiple marks" or no punches in the presidential section of ballots, or having indications of voter intent (that meet dynamic filter criteria) recorded by just one of three coders. ", "Irish-American Republicans - Our Achievements", "Miami Mayor Denies Gore Urged Him to Publicly Support Recount", "Vote-swapping Web sites are legal, appeals court (finally) says", "Nader's Traders vs. State Regulators: Examining the Controversy over Internet Vote Swapping in the 2000 Presidential Election", "Florida Supreme Court Stays Certification of Florida Presidential Ballots; Counties Counting Overseas Absentee Ballots", "Text: Bush Campaign Adviser James A. Baker III", "Text: Gore Campaign Chairman William Daley", "The Butterfly Did It: The Aberrant Vote for Buchanan in Palm Beach County, Florida", "Buchanan camp: Bush claims are "nonsense", "THE 2000 ELECTIONS: THE PALM BEACH BALLOT; Florida Democrats Say Ballot's Design Hurt Gore", "PALM BEACH COUNTY CANVASSING BOARD v. HARRIS", "Palm Beach County Canvassing Board v. Harris", "SUPPLEMENTAL BRIEF OF THE PALM BEACH COUNTY CANVASSING BOARD, FOLLOWING REMAND FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES", "The Lawyers' Role in Selecting the President: A Complete Legal History of the 2000 Election", "Did Illegal Overseas Absentee Ballots Decide the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election? In 2000 that process took five weeks and only ended at the Supreme Court. What the Bush v. Gore studies showed", "Media Recount: Bush Won the 2000 Election", "Statistical Practice: Reliability of the Uncertified Ballots in the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida", "Newspapers' recount shows Bush prevailed", "Florida voter errors cost Gore the election", "Battlefield Florida: A Chat with Lance deHaven-Smith", How we got here: A timeline of the Florida recount, Video highlight of Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Wells opening, Video highlights of November 20, 2000 and December 7, 2000 oral arguments in. USA Today, 11 May 2001. [2] That deadline arrived two hours after the release of the Court's decision. The outcome of the election was ultimately decided by the US Supreme Court in, The 2000 presidential election pitted Republican George W. Bush, governor of Texas and son of former US president George H.W. 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. A nationwide December 1421, 2000 Harris poll asked, "If everyone who tried to vote in Florida had their votes counted for the candidate who they thought they were voting forwith no misleading ballots and infallible voting machineswho do you think would have won the election, George W. Bush or Al Gore?". Ultimately, the contest focused on Florida. As court challenges were issued over the legality of hand recounts in select counties, news stories were filled with the arcane vocabulary of the election judge. a. won the popular vote. On December 4, the Court ordered the Florida Supreme Court to clarify its ruling that had extended the certification date. Among these was the Palm Beach "butterfly ballot", which resulted in an unusually high number of votes for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan. [37] Because there was no clear indication of what the voters intended, those numbers were not included in the consortium's final tabulations. Numerous local court rulings went both ways, some ordering recounts because the vote was so close and others declaring that a selective manual recount in a few heavily Democratic counties would be unfair. The best answer I can give you is "it's complicated". "[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. [80], The NORC was expecting 176,446 uncounted ballots to be available from Florida's counties, based on county precinct reports that produced the final, state-certified vote totals. Conservatives claimed that the same ballot had been successfully used in the 1996 election;[18] in fact, it had never been used in a Palm Beach County election among rival candidates for office. In the month following the election, some 50 individual suits were filed concerning the various counts, recounts, and certification deadlines. That 5-4 majority was composed of the nominees of Republican Presidents George H.W. "[74] CNN and PBS reported that, had the recount continued with its existing standards, Bush would likely have still tallied more votes, but variations of those standards (and/or of which precincts were recounted) could have swung the election either way. Based on the review of these ballots, their results indicated that Bush would have won if certain recounting methods had been used (including the one favored by Gore at the time of the Supreme Court decision), but that Gore might have won under other standards and scenarios. It was ostensibly completed on November 10 in the 66 Florida counties that used vote-counting machines and reduced Bush's lead to 327 votes. The 54 per curiam (unsigned) decision effectively awarded Floridas 25 Electoral College votes to Republican candidate George W. Bush, thereby ensuring his victory over Democratic candidate Al Gore. On December 9, the Court suspended the manual recount, in progress for only several hours, on the grounds that irreparable harm could befall Bush, according to a concurring opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia. ^2 2 It was ostensibly completed on November 10 in the 66 Florida counties that used vote-counting machines and reduced Bush's lead to 327 votes. We shall see how long it takes to resolve this time. What was the primary election-year problem in Florida? 9 terms. Jeb Bush really didn't do anything to rig the vote in Florida. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. At the time, Republicans expressed dismay at the idea of a recount. Direct link to Alex Nemchenko's post Why was a re-vote not ena, Posted 7 years ago. The manual recounts were time-consuming, and it soon became clear that some counties would not complete their recounts before the deadline. This site is using cookies under cookie policy . From affirmative action and hate-crime laws it's a small step to ensuring that all voters, however negligent, have their intent, however vague, reflected in the final result of an election. County custom standard: what each individual county canvassing board considered a vote, in regard to both undervotes and overvotes. [2] Gore phoned Bush the night of the election to concede, then retracted his concession after learning how close the Florida count was.[3]. In effect, the latter ruling made Bush president. With only two hours remaining until the December 12 deadline, the Supreme Court's order effectively ended the recount. Bush led the election-night vote count in Florida by 1,784 votes. Treating the petition as a writ of certiorari (a formal request for review), the Court agreed to take up the case, Bush v. Gore. It would surely be accepted by the reviewing authority, which was the U.S. Senate, where Republicans were in control. [15], On December 13, Gore conceded the election to Bush in a nationally televised address. There were also contentions about the card-punch system that some counties used, which required voters to puncture a hole for the ticket they had supported, but that left some cards with hanging chads, or pieces of paper dangling from their ballots. 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. 3.06 Elections and Voting. How such recounts in the case at hand could be made to fit into the statutory scheme, which, as Harris interpreted it, contemplated a quick certification followed, if necessary, by an election contest during which a court (rather than the canvassing boards) would be empowered to correct errors. The review's findings were reported in the media during the week after November 12, 2001, by the organizations that funded the recount: Associated Press, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, St. Petersburg Times, The Palm Beach Post and Tribune Publishing, which included the Los Angeles Times, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel and Chicago Tribune. 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. But in 2000, the prize was the presidency of the United States. Do I believe that these people inadvertently cast their votes for Pat Buchanan? The court ordered counties to submit returns by November 26, until which time the stay of certification would stand.[59]. [37] After the election, recounts conducted by various United States news media organizations continued to focus on undervotes. The Bush campaign subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which took up the case Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board on December 1. Do you think the Supreme Court was right to halt the recount in Florida? By November 10 the machine recount was complete, and Bushs lead stood at 327 votes out of six million cast. Although their conclusions were similar, the Miami Herald study and the later and larger study came up with different numbers, evidence of the uncertainties involved. So Im reading along, reading along, reading along. Declared George bush the winner of Florida after intervention from the Supreme Court of the United States and gave bush the state by a margin of 537 votes. Expert groups continue to recommend use of the drug during pregnancy when necessary and in consultation with a doctor. emilyrawlings2444. Eighteen years is a long time. IF the results were "scattered", who would officially be president? a. a global recession. However, Gore never asked for such a recount. Fewer than 600 votes separated the candidates, and that margin appeared to be narrowing. Due to the narrow margin of the original vote count, Florida Election Code 102.141 mandated a statewide machine recount,[5] which began the day after the election. 2000 United States presidential election in Florida, Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican, Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic, The previous closest statewide presidential elections were two in. According to their results, Bush won under stricter standards and Gore won under looser standards. 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. Undervotes (ballots that did not register any vote when counted by machine) were the subject of much media coverage, most of the lawsuits and the Florida Supreme Court ruling. Biden has several leads in battleground states as of Friday and most likely will nix Trump from the White House in January. How many electoral votes did George W. Bush win in the 2000 election? [4]:74. On December 8, the Florida justices, by a 43 vote, rejected the selective use of manual recounts in just four counties and ordered immediate manual recounts of all ballots in the state where no vote for president had been machine-recorded, also known as undervotes. [10] Voters from reliably Democratic states in the Northeast had also been migrating to Florida since the 1950s. The Associated Press reported the findings this way: AP: A vote-by-vote review of untallied ballots in the 2000 Florida presidential election indicates George W. Bush would have narrowly prevailed in the partial recounts sought by Al Gore, but Gore might have reversed the outcome by the barest of margins had he pursued and gained a complete statewide recount. "Florida Review Shows Narrowest Margin." A previous version of this story incorrectly gave Republican Ron DeSantis' first name as Brian. Shouldn't the electoral college be scrapped then? By 8 p.m. But the state of the 2020 race is completely different, as Gore stated, than two decades ago. Even so, when we think of that time, many of us conjure up memories as sharp as barbed wire, roll our eyes or sigh out loud when anyone mentions "Florida 2000.". do not count any votes for the marked candidate (4): Counties that count votes for the marked candidate if the write-in is. Tanner, Robert and Sharon L. Crenson. Following the machine recount, the Gore campaign requested a manual recount in four counties. The case of Palm Beach Canvassing Board v. Katherine Harris (also known as Harris I) was a lawsuit about whether county canvassing boards had authority to extend manual recounts in order to inspect ballots for which the machine counter did not register a vote. The Florida recount was the subject of the 2008 television film Recount, which aired on HBO. Direct link to Jeff Kelman's post How long would the recoun, Posted 7 years ago. [37] Such a statewide review including all uncounted votes was a tangible possibility, as Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis, whom the Florida Supreme Court had assigned to oversee the statewide recount, had scheduled a hearing for December 13 (mooted by the U.S. Supreme Court's final ruling on December 12) to consider including overvotes. Negative sign indicates number of votes that decision caused to be excluded from state certified total. While the stakes might not be quite as high this time, they are nonetheless substantial: the governorship of Florida, a seat in the U.S. Senate, and the office of state agricultural commission. The ruling effectively awarded Floridas 25 votes in the electoral collegeand thus the election itselfto Republican candidate George W. Bush. How does the election of 2000 compare to other presidential elections? [19]:215216 Also, before the election, the Secretary of State's office had expunged tens of thousands of citizens identified as felons from the Florida voting rolls, with African-Americans identified on some counties' lists at up to five times their share of the population. Florida Elections For Governor And U.S. Senate Heading For Recount. That study was conducted by a group that included the Miami Herald, USA Today and Knight Ridder newspapers. United States presidential election of 2000, American presidential election held on Nov. 7, 2000, in which Republican George W. Bush narrowly lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore but defeated Gore in the electoral college. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris's certification of the election results was thus upheld, allowing Florida's electoral votes to be cast for Bush, making him president-elect. Bush's margin was so small that all the anomalies and oddities that mar the margins of any major election ballooned into major national controversies. USA Today, The Miami Herald, and Knight Ridder commissioned accounting firm BDO Seidman to count undervotes. Polk, Hamilton, Seminole, and Taylor Counties, which used the more reliable optical scanners, decided to manually examine unreadable ballots (both undervotes and overvotes) during the counties' electronic recounts, in accordance with those counties' existing policies (see. When Palm Beach County completed its recount two hours after the certification deadline, its final count was Gore 501 votes, Bush 327 votes excluded from the state certified total. [36], The project's goal was to determine the reliability and accuracy of the systems used in the voting process, including how different systems correlated with voter mistakes. two-coder general agreement for punch card ballots. Some have argued that awarding the electors in this manner would be illegal. 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. [10] The county canvassing board was then to decide whether to do a recount, as well as the method of the recount, in those three precincts. The Herron memo gave postmark and "point of origin" criteria that Herron maintained could be used to challenge overseas ballots. 2000 Electoral College Results. Thus the project included a sample within less than 1% of the expected total of votes.[78]. A: Nobody can say for sure who might have won. Some media reports focused on undervotes (chad blocked hole, wrong ink or pencil used, partial oval mark not detected, humidity affected scanner, ballot feeder misalignment), while others also included overvotes (hole punched or oval filled plus a write-in name, other multi-marked ballots).