While Democrats did make their way down to Florida, there was nothing like the certainty or the passion that ignited Republicans. Based on exit polls in Florida, the news media declared Gore the winner, but as the actual votes were tallied, Bush appeared to command the lead. Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Palm Beach County since the county's founding in 1909. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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. Direct link to famousguy786's post The answer to your questi, Posted 7 years ago. 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. Biden has several leads in battleground states as of Friday and most likely will nix Trump from the White House in January. On December 8, in a 43 decision, the Florida Supreme Court ordered immediate manual recounts of undervotes for the office of president in all counties where such recounts had not already taken place. That meant he would be president. Florida Supreme Court order as being implemented: accepts completed recounts in eight counties and certified counts from four counties that refused to recount; Incomplete result when the Supreme Court stayed the recount (December 9, 2000), Recounts included from Volusia and Broward only, Wrong ink color/carbon content (oval/arrow filled). The Florida Supreme Court extended the deadline for the recount and ordered a manual recount. The GOP effort in 2000 broadcasted massive talent within the party that likely helped Bush land a White House win. 9 terms. Florida Elections For Governor And U.S. Senate Heading For Recount. The organization analyzed 61,190 undervotes and 113,820 overvotes. Possible reasons include, but are not limited to, ambient humidity, feeder misalignment and scanner light sensitivity. That call was made in the early morning hours of November 8 by all the TV networks cited above, but not by the AP. 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. Cox News Service, 11 Nov. 2001. It also stayed the state certification to November 26. [3], Election fairness was a major problem known to Floridians in the 1990s; for example, the 1997 Miami mayoral election was tainted by scandal. 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). Unlike the other 20 counties, Palm Beach and Pasco Counties determined voter intent on 74 overvotes for Gore and Bush; however, they did not include them in their certified results. For example, 21,188 of the Florida overvotes, or nearly one-fifth of the total, originated from Duval County, where the presidential ballot was split across two pages and voters were instructed to "vote every page". But the state of the 2020 race is completely different, as Gore stated, than two decades ago. In the 2000 Election, the State of Florida officials A. declared Al Gore the winner when the recount deadline passed B. decided that the recount should continue in all counties until complete C. decided that the recount procedures went against the U.S. Constitution D. declared George Bush the winner when the recount deadline passed 2 See answers Furthermore, the study did not consider overvotes, ballots that registered more than one vote when counted by machine. So Im reading along, reading along, reading along. The next day, Gore sued under Florida's statutory construct of the "contest phase". In the Election of 2000, Florida was. Why or why not? On election day, Gore won the popular vote by over half a million votes. [4]:74. And not in the minds of a generation of Americans who thought the White House should have gone to Gore. Gore appealed that decision to the Florida Supreme Court. But in 2000, the prize was the presidency of the United States. Florida Code Section 101.5614[5] states that no vote "shall be declared invalid or void if there is a clear indication of the intent of the voter. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector. Couldn't they have just redone the entire election? 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." Most of the variation occurred in Votomatic overvotes, the least likely ballots to yield votes in a recount. "Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes: Online Sunshine", "Bush leads Gore by 327 votes in Florida recount, Associated Press reports", "A State Legislature Cannot Appoint Its Preferred Slate of Electors to Override the Will of the People After the Election", "Gore concedes presidential race after the fight of his life", "The Butterfly Ballot: Anatomy of a Disaster", "Florida's flawed "voter-cleansing" program", "Do Voting Rights Notification Laws Increase Ex-Felon Turnout? [9] Some late momentum for Gore and his Jewish running mate Joe Lieberman may have come from southern Florida's significant Jewish population. That could skew toward an unusual number of young voters, women voters and people of color. "But," it said, "Gore could not have won without a hand count of overvote ballots, something that he did not request.". According to their results, Bush won under stricter standards and Gore won under looser standards. Including overvotes in the above totals for undervotes gives different margins of victory: The overvotes with write-in names were also noted by Florida State University public policy professor and elections observer, Lance deHaven-Smith, in his interview with Research in Review at Florida State University:[85]. Salvado says that this alone cost Gore the election. Do you think the Supreme Court was right to halt the recount in Florida? [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 media consortium then analyzed the raw data produced by NORC and drew conclusions. Where a ballot is so marked as to plainly indicate the voter's choice and intent, it should be counted as marked unless some positive provision of law would be violated. [2] It was also the first time the Democratic candidate won Orange County since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. 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? 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). Some questioned Buchanan's 3,407 votes in Palm Beach County, Florida, given the liberal leanings of the county, the sizeable Jewish population, and his performance in the remainder of the state. Florida Attorney General Robert Butterworth in his advisory opinion to county canvassing boards wrote:[60]. She was also an ally of Republican Gov. Decisions by some canvassing boards to count illegal overseas absentee ballots. The voting is supposed to proceed night and day until a winner is clear. There were confusing ballots marked for third-party candidate Patrick Buchanan in heavily Democratic precincts, suggesting they were cast by voters who had thought they were voting for Gore. Florida's secretary of state, Katherine Harris, a Republican, then gave counties until 2:00p.m. on November 15 to provide reasons for recounting their ballots. The study cost nearly $1 million and was the most thorough and comprehensive news-media review of the Florida balloting. None of these findings are certain. 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. Although theres much legal turmoil, the president is behind in a number of states -- not just one like in 2000. [79] Some counties produced their rejected ballots by rerunning all ballots through tabulation machines but were unable to deliver all problem ballots because machines accepted more ballots than previously certified and rejected fewer. The Florida election was closely scrutinized after Election Day. 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. 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. 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?". The ruling effectively awarded Floridas 25 votes in the electoral collegeand thus the election itselfto Republican candidate George W. Bush. 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. Taken together with Florida, those states triggered the network's computer programs to conclude Gore would win the Electoral College. Florida state election law required a mandatory statewide machine recount. As the country awaited the results, lawyers from both parties swarmed the Sunshine State, with Gores team asking for a hand recount. Direct link to SoccerboyH2's post IF the results were "scat, Posted 2 years ago. Rove was political even as a young child. 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. Following the machine recount, the Gore campaign requested a manual recount in four counties. How does the election of 2000 compare to other presidential elections? Florida was the second of the 50 states (after Louisiana) to report its official results to the federal government (in a Certificate of Ascertainment submitted to the National Archivist, the manner prescribed for presidential elections). Of these 4842 excluded ballots, 4513 had been set aside by the canvassing board for later inspection by a court (which never happened). The longstanding case law in Florida [ ] has held that the intent of the voters as shown by their ballots should be given effect. Initial election returns showed that Gore had won the popular vote, but neither candidate had garnered the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency. So this week we begin again the arduous process of deciding how to count, and recount, Florida. [21] Additionally, this Florida election produced many more "overvotes" than usual, especially in predominantly African-American precincts in Duval County (Jacksonville), where some 21,000 ballots had multiple markings, such as two or more choices for president. 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]. Advertisement What can the events of 20 years ago teach us about the 2020 election? 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. [16][17], During the recount, controversy ensued with the discovery of various irregularities that had occurred in the voting process in several counties. ", "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? To know more about presidential election of 2000 visit:-, This site is using cookies under cookie policy . "Study concludes accurate election recount virtually impossible." What did the U.S. Supreme Court decide in, https://www.britannica.com/event/Bush-v-Gore, Cornell University Law School - Bush Versus Gore, Bush v. Gore - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), sample butterfly ballot from Florida, 2000. "Florida Review Shows Narrowest Margin." Direct link to David Knarian's post The Constitution has it s, Posted 2 years ago. CNN.com, 2001. Undervotes from punch-card counties give new votes to candidates in roughly the same proportion as the county's official vote. Posted 7 years ago. our elections: badly kept lists, shoddy ballots during the 2000 Presidential Election. I have Gore on the phone, people are bringing me pages one page at a time. Orange County total of 512 properly filled ballots not read by machine on November 8, 2000. As USA Today said of the findings on May 11, 2001: USA Today: George W. Bush would have won a hand recount of all disputed ballots in Floridas presidential election if the most widely accepted standard for judging votes had been applied. (Three other tallies that are not statewide votes are also in the balance as the recount begins.). [83] Under the other standards used in the study, Bush's margin of victory increased as looser standards were used. They had won Florida, they insisted. do not count any votes for the marked candidate (4): Counties that count votes for the marked candidate if the write-in is. Upon such an overvote, the entire vote for that office shall be void and shall not be counted. Why was a re-vote not enacted, that could have been monitored more carefully? Florida had 25 electoral votes and became the focus of a court battle over the outcome of the election. The state's electorate was becoming more diverse in general, with growing Asian and Hispanic immigrant populations. The recounts had gone up until December 9 (although they had been stopped and restarted and stopped and restarted several times before then) when the Supreme Court stopped the recount with a 7 to 2 decision, on the basis that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. "In a per curiam decision, the Court first ruled 72 (Justices Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting), strictly on equal protection grounds, that the recount be stopped. According to factcheck.org, "Nobody can say for sure who might have won. Harris announced that Bush had won Florida. [12] This statutory process primarily accommodated recounts for local elections. 03.06 Elections and Voting. 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. 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. The ballot displayed the list of presidential running-mate pairs alternately across two adjacent pages, with a column of punch spaces down the middle. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. United States presidential election of 2000, A History of U.S. Presidential Elections in Maps. Direct link to ayushkadri's post No. Do I believe that these people inadvertently cast their votes for Pat Buchanan? No. "[7] Even an elections supervisor in Madison County was barred from voting; she and others "tried to get the state to rectify the problem, but their pleas fell on deaf ears."[7]. [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. What followed was a five-week war over the ballots, the rules, the law and the courts. Gore, legal case, decided on December 12, 2000, in which the Supreme Court of the United States reversed an order by the Florida Supreme Court for a selective manual recount of that state's U.S. presidential election ballots. Under Florida election law, a machine recount of all votes cast was required because the margin of victory was less than 0.5 percent. The best answer I can give you is "it's complicated".