Who Ran Agains George W Bush in 2000
Five hundred thirty-vii votes.
That's all that separated Democrat Al Gore and his Republican challenger George W. Bush when, on November 26, 2000, three weeks after Ballot Day, the land of Florida declared Bush the winner of its 25 electoral votes in the race for U.S. president.
After a wild election nighttime on November 7, 2000, during which Boob tube networks first chosen the fundamental country of Florida for Gore, and so for Bush, followed by a concession by Gore that was shortly rescinded, the results for who would be the nation'southward 43rd president were merely too close to phone call.
In the 36 days that followed, Americans learned Gore had won the popular vote past 543,895 votes. Just information technology'southward winning the Electoral College that counts. As accusations of fraud and voter suppression, calls for recounts and the filing of lawsuits ensued, the terms "hanging chads," "dimpled chads" and "meaning chads" became role of the lexicon.
Andrew Due east. Busch, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and co-author of The Perfect Necktie: The Truthful Story of the 2000 Presidential Election, says as votes were counted and Bush'due south lead grew, TV networks retracted their premature phone call of Gore, instead giving the state to Bush.
"When the lead shrank to almost two,000 votes in the early hours of the morning, Telly reversed again, rescinded the call for Bush-league, and declared Florida as nevertheless undetermined," he says. "The initial problem was failure of the exit polls, for which they later overcompensated."
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Likewise Close to Call
The New York Post proclaims Texas Gov. George W. Bush the winner of the presidential election, while the New York Daily News is more circumspect in their front page assessment which hit the newsstand the morning after the presidential election November eight, 2000.
Henny Ray Abrams/AFP/Getty Images
The effect of the 2000 presidential election ending in such a close telephone call wasn't a huge surprise: According to The Perfect Tie, the Gallup tracking poll showed nine lead changes during the fall campaign, with Bush belongings a slight pb in the final week of the campaign, and Gore gaining a swing in momentum on Election Mean solar day.
As it became clear the terminal vote in Florida, which would decide the election, was basically a tie, Gore rescinded his concession during a phone call. Bush, according to The New York Times, asked, ''You hateful to tell me, Mr. Vice President, you lot're retracting your concession?'' That was followed by Gore's response: ''You don't accept to be snippy near it,'' and, ''Allow me explicate something. Your younger brother is not the ultimate authorization on this.''
Gore was referring to the fact that Florida's governor at the time was Jeb Bush, Bush-league'due south younger brother. Further fueling the fire: Katherine Harris, Florida's secretary of state, charged with overseeing an impartial election, was a Republican who served as co-chair of Florida's Bush-league for President ballot committee.
"When an election is this close, and closely fought, a recount forth these timelines is to be expected," says Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at the Academy of California, Irvine, and writer of The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Adjacent Election Meltdown. "The Franken-Coleman recount of the Minnesota Senate race in 2008 took almost nine months to fully resolve. But for a presidential election we need certitude much sooner, making everything more than difficult."
Busch says recounts at the local or state level are not exceptional, but an result similar this, at the presidential level, hadn't occurred for some time.
"In 1876, at that place was a much bigger dispute," he says, referring to the election in which Republican Rutherford B. Hayes eventually emerged as president after neither major political party candidate earned enough electoral votes to win without xx disputed electors. A congressional stalemate led to the creation of a commission that controversially awarded all xx disputed electors to Hayes.
"There was a lot of maneuvering, but not the aforementioned scenario," Hasen says. "Florida in 2000 took so long because of multiple legal challenges, stops and starts to the recount that carried it across the norm."
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The Florida Recount and Hanging Chads
Palm Beach canvassing lath fellow member Approximate Charles Burton (L) takes a close look at a questionable ballot with Republican attorney John Bolton (R) and democratic chaser Gerry McDonough (C) at the Palm Beach county Emergency Operations Center in Due west Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov 18, 2000.
Greg Lovett/AFP/Getty Images
Over the adjacent few weeks, with no winner yet determined, officials conducted an electronic recount, in which ballots were re-fed into the same machines, simply Gore asked for a mitt recount. "In that location was much squabbling most when, how, and whether to do such hand recounts," according to The Voting Wars. "I constabulary firm lonely eventually handled xl ballot-related lawsuits for the Florida secretary of state."
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The ballots, themselves, became an consequence of contention. The visually disruptive paper dial-card "butterfly ballot," in which two columns of candidate names were separated by a center column with marks to be punched through, was blamed for some Gore votes going to Pat Buchanan due to a misalignment of the names and marks.
And so some of those marks failed to get properly punched through.
"Some counties in Florida used a menu-punch organization for voting," Busch says. "Voters would get a card with fiddling perforated squares that lined upwardly with names on the ballot. They would position a carte du jour puncher over the square belonging to the candidate they wanted and would push button information technology through the foursquare, creating a hole that would be read past a vote-counting automobile. The little square that is supposed to exist knocked out is called the 'chad.'"
At issue: Some holes were not completely punched out of the ballots. "A republic of chad that was not punched out all the way—i.eastward. was still hanging by ane, ii or even three corners to the ballot—was called a 'hanging chad.'" Busch says. "Election officials had to devise standards by which to count the ballots with hanging chads. Practise you count it every bit a valid vote every bit long as in that location is some evidence that a voter tried to cast a vote? Do you only count information technology if three of the four corners are knocked out? Something in between? No consistent standard was developed, which was a key issue in Bush-league v. Gore."
Later on lawsuits, challenges and recounts, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a recount of undervotes in all of Florida's 67 counties, which was speedily appealed past Bush, and the case headed to the U.Southward. Supreme Court.
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The Supreme Court Determination: Bush v. Gore
According to Busch, the Supreme Court had telegraphed its displeasure with how things were going in Florida a week or so before past sending the get-go Bush plea to the court back to the Florida Supreme Court by a ix-0 vote, "maxim basically, 'Nosotros would rather not get involved, but y'all are messing this up. Fix it.'"
The Florida Supreme Court ignored the alarm signal and pressed forward with its telephone call for a recount, and the case was returned to the U.S. Supreme Court. The example, according to Hasen's book, put the Florida election under a microscope, examining ballot machines, voter lists, vote-counting rules, the country's poorly drafted election statutes, partisan election officials and the part of courts.
"At that point there were actually two key votes," Hasen says. "The start was a vii-ii decision that the Florida recount, as information technology was being conducted, was unconstitutional on the grounds that in that location were no clear standards that were being practical consistently to all ballots. Then, by a 5-4 vote, the court alleged that time had run out to devise a remedy. That stopped the process, with Bush alee."
The determination resulted in one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in American history. With the Florida win, Bush-league led Gore in electoral votes nationally 271-266, and, out of legal options, Gore conceded.
"The court divided along ideological lines with the conservatives backing Bush, the more bourgeois candidate, and the liberals bankroll Gore, the more liberal candidate," Hasen says. "The case presented difficult questions nigh courtroom intervention in a procedure that both sides thought was infected with politics from the opposing side."
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Consequences of the 2000 Election
George W. Bush and his wife Laura announced at a presidential campaign rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Bush won the 2000 presidential Election against Vice President Al Gore after a controversial vote recount in Florida.
Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma/Getty Images
With the decision, Bush became the beginning president since Benjamin Harrison, in 1888, to lose the popular vote, but win the general election. Not surprising, Democrats were unhappy with the results, Busch notes, while Republicans were happy and relieved.
"I think independents were generally relieved that the partisan bickering was over," he says. "Overall, about 80 percent of poll respondents told Gallup that they accepted the results every bit legitimate."
One outcome of the effect: Candidates learned non to concede as well early, Busch adds. "One of Gore'due south political issues throughout the five weeks was that he had conceded to Bush, and then withdrew his concession, so he was widely seen as a bad loser," he says. "Ever since 2000, both parties accept maintained a stable of attorneys prepared to swarm over the next Florida on a moment'southward notice."
The 2000 election dispute also contributed to the growing polarization in American politics, according to Busch. "Democrats saw Bush as a president who snuck in by the good graces of the Supreme Court, and Republicans saw Gore and Democrats as people who would change rules in the middle of the game just to concur on to power," he says.
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Source: https://www.history.com/news/2000-election-bush-gore-votes-supreme-court