The story
On November 7, 2000, Republican George W. Bush, governor of Texas and son of the former president, ran against Democratic Vice President Al Gore. Gore won the national popular vote by about 544,000 votes, 48.4 percent to 47.9 percent, but the Electoral College came down to Florida and its 25 electoral votes. After 36 days of recounts and lawsuits, Florida was certified for Bush by 537 votes out of nearly 6 million, giving him 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader won 2.7 percent nationally and about 97,000 votes in Florida.
On election night the television networks first called Florida for Gore, then withdrew the call, then called it for Bush, then withdrew again. Gore had phoned Bush to concede and then retracted it. Bush's lead of under 2,000 votes triggered an automatic machine recount, which shrank it further. Gore requested hand recounts in four Democratic-leaning counties, and the fight turned on punch-card ballots: 'hanging chads' that were only partly punched, and Palm Beach County's confusing 'butterfly ballot,' which led some Gore voters to vote for Pat Buchanan by mistake.
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified Bush the winner on November 26. On December 8 the Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide hand recount of undervotes, ballots where machines detected no presidential vote. The U.S. Supreme Court halted it the next day, and on December 12, in Bush v. Gore, ruled that the varying county standards violated equal protection (7 to 2) and, by 5 to 4, that no valid recount could finish before the federal deadline. Gore conceded the next evening.
Why it mattered
- Bush's presidency shaped the U.S. response to the September 11 attacks and launched the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002, helping states replace punch-card voting machines.
- Bush v. Gore became one of the most debated Supreme Court rulings, and the split between popular and electoral votes revived calls to change the Electoral College.
- Lawyers and parties began preparing for post-election legal battles in every close race that followed.
Sources
- United States presidential election of 2000 Britannica
- The Florida Recount of 2000 FactCheck.org
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made
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