HOST: The US presidential
election of 2000
was one of the closest and
most controversial elections
in American history.
Then-vice president Al
Gore ran against Texas
governor George W. Bush, the son
of former president George H.W.
Bush.
Both were high-profile figures
with opposing political views.
The campaign season was tense.
That tension all came
to a head on election
night, leading to one of
the most unusual outcomes
in history, a presidency
secured by a Supreme
Court ruling in Bush v. Gore.
It was Tuesday,
November 7, 2000.
The race was close all night.
Americans were glued to
their television sets.
One minute Gore was in the lead.
The next, Bush was set to win.
But soon, one fact
became crystal clear.
The election came down to
whoever would win the most
votes in the state of Florida.
But why did Florida
matter so much?
In the US, presidential
elections are not
determined by the popular vote.
Instead, we use a system
called the Electoral College.
Each state is
designated a set amount
of electoral votes roughly
based on their populations.
In the year 2000, a highly
populated state like California
had 54 electoral votes
and the much less
populated Delaware had three.
The candidate who gets the
most votes in each state
gains all of the
electoral votes.
There are 538 electoral votes
in all and it takes at least 270
to win the presidency.
But in 2000, neither candidate
had enough electoral votes
to clinch the presidency.
Gore only had 255.
Bush had 246.
So it all came down to
Florida's 25 electoral votes.
Whoever won the state of Florida
would take the presidency.
But here's where
things get tricky.
When the polls finally
closed in Florida,
the results were just too close
to call, which automatically
triggered a recount by machine.
When that was finished the
day after the election,
Bush had a small lead of
about 900 popular votes
out of 6 million ballots cast.
Such a narrow
margin allowed Gore
to demand a recount by hand
in four crucial counties.
This meant that they count the
votes in all those counties
all over again.
The Florida secretary of state,
a Republican who had also
worked on Bush's campaign,
insisted that this recount
be completed by November 14.
The Gore campaign
wanted more time,
so they petitioned the
Florida Supreme Court.
The court extended the recount
deadline to November 26.
But only two counties made it.
One county gave up
trying, and the fourth
finished two hours
late and was not
allowed to hand in its tally.
Still, with just two
counties' recounts,
Bush's lead had
shrunk even further.
It was now just about 500 votes.
So the Florida Supreme
Court granted the Gore
campaign's request
for a larger recount
of 70,000 questionable ballots.
But then the recount revealed
a problem, balloting methods.
In some Florida counties, votes
were cast using a hole punch.
But if the hole wasn't
punched properly,
the machine wouldn't count it.
In Palm Beach County
alone 29,000 ballots
were found spoiled
and discarded either
because they were
improperly punched
or because multiple
candidates were
voted for on the same ticket,
presumably by mistake.
Al Gore insisted
that ignoring votes
means ignoring democracy itself.
It was now 19 days
past election day
and a winner still
had not been declared.
At this point, the United
States Supreme Court intervened
and halted the recount.
By a 5-4 vote, the US
Supreme Court ultimately
ordered the recount be stopped,
arguing that a recount of only
some ballots violated
the equal protection
clause of the 14th Amendment
in the Constitution.
Of course, given the variety
of balloting systems,
counting all votes by the
same standard was impossible.
Technically, the
US Supreme Court
led Florida's supreme court
still have the final say.
But there was little
left for that court
to do but dismiss the case.
Gore conceding and Bush was
awarded the electoral votes
and declared president.
However, the Supreme
Court's ruling did
not appease Gore supporters.
Many Americans saw
the narrow majority
vote in the Supreme
Court as being
split along partisan lines--
five justices favoring the
Republican, four the Democrat.
Critics would later
claim bitterly
that Al Gore lost the election
by a margin of just one vote
in the Supreme Court.
Gore was the first presidential
candidate in 112 years
to lose the electoral
vote but win
the popular vote with a
total of almost 550,000
more votes over Bush.
It would be 16 years
before this happened
again in the 2016 presidential
election of Donald Trump.
Trump won the
electoral vote but lost
the popular vote
to Hillary Clinton
by a margin of
2.9 million votes.
In the end, Bush became
president and served two terms.
Gore continued his political
life as an advocate for action
against climate change.
Meanwhile, Americans
continue to debate
the efficacy of the
US electoral system
and voting procedures
across each state.
