2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida

2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida

The Florida election recount of 2000 was a period of vote recounting in Florida in the 2000 United States presidential election. The Florida vote was ultimately settled in Bush’s favor by a margin of 537 votes when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Bush v. Gore, stopped a recount that had been initiated upon a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court.

About 2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida in brief

Summary 2000 United States presidential election recount in FloridaThe Florida election recount of 2000 was a period of vote recounting in Florida that occurred during the weeks after Election Day in the 2000 United States presidential election. The Florida vote was ultimately settled in Bush’s favor by a margin of 537 votes when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Bush v. Gore, stopped a recount that had been initiated upon a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court. The controversy began on election night, November 7, 2000, when the national television networks, using information provided to them by the Voter News Service, first called Florida for Gore, then for Bush. Bush led the election-night vote count in Florida by 1,784 votes. The small margin produced an automatic recount under Florida state law, which began the day after the election. That first day’s results reduced the margin to just over 900 votes. Once it became clear that Florida would decide the presidential election, the nation’s attention focused on the manual recount. The manual recounts were time-consuming, and it soon becameclear that some counties would not complete their recounts before the deadline. On November 13, the original deadline for reporting the results of the original recount, the Volusia County recount, was met. The next day, the Supreme Court allowed manual recounts in Palm Beach and Broward Counties to continue. The same day, a state judge upheld that deadline but ruled that further recounts could be considered later. Florida statutes also required that all counties certify and report their returns, including any recounts, by 5: 00 p.

m. on November 14. The Bush campaign worked to stop the recount. On November 11, it joined a group of Florida voters in suing in federal district court for a preemptive injunction to stop all manual recounting of votes in Florida. Bush’s lawyers argued that recounting votes in just four counties violated the 14th Amendment and also that similarly punched ballots could be tabulated differently since Florida had no detailed standards for hand-counting. The Gore campaign requested that disputed ballots in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties be counted by hand. After the recount, Bush held a 300-vote lead in Florida and won the election in the Electoral College and victory in the presidential race. The recount was eventually completed on November 15, but a judge gave counties until 2: 00 p.m. to provide reasons for recounting their ballots to decide whether it left it to the state to decide to continue to recount their ballots. The state’s secretary of state, Katherine Harris, then gave Florida counties until the same day to decide if it could be left to the same judge to decide it to decide. The recounts were then considered until November 16, when a judge ruled that Florida counties could continue to count their ballots until it left the same time to decide what to do. The final vote count was held on November 17, and Bush won the presidency by a majority of 1,816 votes. Bush’s win in Florida gave him a majority in the electoral college and victory on Election Day.