what happened to the presidential election of 2000

Five hundred thirty-seven votes.

That'due south all that separated Democrat Al Gore and his Republican challenger George W. Bush when, on November 26, 2000, three weeks after Ballot Twenty-four hours, the state of Florida declared Bush the winner of its 25 electoral votes in the race for U.South. president.

After a wild ballot nighttime on November 7, 2000, during which TV networks first called the key state of Florida for Gore, then for Bush, followed by a concession by Gore that was soon rescinded, the results for who would be the nation's 43rd president were merely too shut to call.

In the 36 days that followed, Americans learned Gore had won the popular vote by 543,895 votes. But it's 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 "pregnant chads" became office of the lexicon.

Andrew Eastward. Busch, professor of regime at Claremont McKenna College and co-writer of The Perfect Necktie: The True Story of the 2000 Presidential Election, says equally votes were counted and Bush-league's atomic number 82 grew, Boob tube networks retracted their premature call of Gore, instead giving the state to Bush-league.

"When the atomic number 82 shrank to nearly 2,000 votes in the early hours of the morning time, Goggle box reversed again, rescinded the call for Bush, and declared Florida as yet undetermined," he says. "The initial problem was failure of the exit polls, for which they later overcompensated."

READ MORE: What Is the Balloter College and Why Was Information technology Created?

Too Close to Call

The New York Post proclaims Texas Gov. George W. Bush-league 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 forenoon afterwards the presidential election Nov 8, 2000.

Henny Ray Abrams/AFP/Getty Images

The result of the 2000 presidential election ending in such a close 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 holding a slight lead in the final week of the campaign, and Gore gaining a swing in momentum on Election 24-hour interval.

As it became clear the terminal vote in Florida, which would decide the ballot, was basically a necktie, Gore rescinded his concession during a telephone telephone call. Bush, according to The New York Times, asked, ''You mean to tell me, Mr. Vice President, yous're retracting your concession?'' That was followed by Gore's response: ''You don't take to be snippy about it,'' and, ''Let me explicate something. Your younger blood brother is non the ultimate potency on this.''

Gore was referring to the fact that Florida'south governor at the fourth dimension was Jeb Bush, Bush'southward 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'south Bush-league for President election committee.

"When an ballot is this close, and closely fought, a recount along these timelines is to be expected," says Rick Hasen, professor of police force and political scientific discipline at the Academy of California, Irvine, and author of The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Side by side Election Meltdown. "The Franken-Coleman recount of the Minnesota Senate race in 2008 took almost nine months to fully resolve. Just for a presidential election we need finality much sooner, making everything more difficult."

Busch says recounts at the local or state level are not infrequent, but an event like this, at the presidential level, hadn't occurred for some fourth dimension.

"In 1876, in that location was a much bigger dispute," he says, referring to the ballot in which Republican Rutherford B. Hayes eventually emerged as president later on neither major party candidate earned enough balloter votes to win without 20 disputed electors. A congressional stalemate led to the creation of a commission that controversially awarded all 20 disputed electors to Hayes.

"There was a lot of maneuvering, but non the same scenario," Hasen says. "Florida in 2000 took so long because of multiple legal challenges, stops and starts to the recount that carried information technology beyond the norm."

READ MORE: How the 1876 Election Tested the Constitution

The Florida Recount and Hanging Chads

Palm Beach canvassing board fellow member Gauge Charles Burton (L) takes a close await at a questionable ballot with Republican chaser John Bolton (R) and democratic attorney Gerry McDonough (C) at the Palm Embankment county Emergency Operations Center in Due west Palm Beach, Florida, on November 18, 2000.

Greg Lovett/AFP/Getty Images

Over the adjacent few weeks, with no winner all the same determined, officials conducted an electronic recount, in which ballots were re-fed into the same machines, but Gore asked for a hand recount. "At that place was much squabbling about when, how, and whether to do such hand recounts," according to The Voting Wars. "One law firm alone somewhen handled 40 election-related lawsuits for the Florida secretary of state."

Gyre to Continue

The ballots, themselves, became an result of contention. The visually confusing paper punch-carte "butterfly ballot," in which two columns of candidate names were separated by a middle column with marks to exist punched through, was blamed for some Gore votes going to Pat Buchanan due to a misalignment of the names and marks.

And then some of those marks failed to get properly punched through.

"Some counties in Florida used a carte du jour-punch system for voting," Busch says. "Voters would get a card with little perforated squares that lined up with names on the ballot. They would position a menu puncher over the square belonging to the candidate they wanted and would push button it through the square, creating a pigsty that would be read by a vote-counting machine. The piffling square that is supposed to exist knocked out is chosen the 'chad.'"

At outcome: Some holes were not completely punched out of the ballots. "A republic of chad that was not punched out all the way—i.east. was still hanging by one, two or even three corners to the election—was called a 'hanging chad.'" Busch says. "Election officials had to devise standards by which to count the ballots with hanging chads. Do you count it as a valid vote as long every bit there is some show that a voter tried to cast a vote? Do you only count it if 3 of the four corners are knocked out? Something in between? No consistent standard was developed, which was a fundamental issue in Bush v. Gore."

Afterward lawsuits, challenges and recounts, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a recount of undervotes in all of Florida's 67 counties, which was quickly appealed by Bush, and the case headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

READ More than: What Happens If There'due south a Tie in a US Presidential Ballot?

The Supreme Courtroom Determination: Bush v. Gore

According to Busch, the Supreme Court had telegraphed its displeasure with how things were going in Florida a calendar week or then before past sending the showtime Bush plea to the courtroom back to the Florida Supreme Court past a nine-0 vote, "saying basically, 'Nosotros would rather non get involved, simply you are messing this up. Fix information technology.'"

The Florida Supreme Court ignored the warning betoken and pressed forward with its call for a recount, and the instance was returned to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, according to Hasen's volume, put the Florida election under a microscope, examining ballot machines, voter lists, vote-counting rules, the country's poorly drafted election statutes, partisan ballot officials and the role of courts.

"At that point there were actually two key votes," Hasen says. "The showtime was a 7-2 decision that the Florida recount, as information technology was being conducted, was unconstitutional on the grounds that there were no clear standards that were existence applied consistently to all ballots. Then, past a 5-4 vote, the court declared that fourth dimension had run out to devise a remedy. That stopped the process, with Bush-league alee."

The decision resulted in one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in American history. With the Florida win, Bush led Gore in electoral votes nationally 271-266, and, out of legal options, Gore conceded.

"The courtroom divided along ideological lines with the conservatives backing Bush, the more conservative candidate, and the liberals backing Gore, the more liberal candidate," Hasen says. "The case presented difficult questions nearly court intervention in a procedure that both sides thought was infected with politics from the opposing side."

READ MORE: How Sandra O'Connor's Swing Vote Decided the 2000 Election

Consequences of the 2000 Election

George W. Bush and his wife Laura announced at a presidential entrada 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 first president since Benjamin Harrison, in 1888, to lose the popular vote, simply win the full general election. Not surprising, Democrats were unhappy with the results, Busch notes, while Republicans were happy and relieved.

"I remember independents were by and large relieved that the partisan bickering was over," he says. "Overall, about 80 percent of poll respondents told Gallup that they accepted the results as legitimate."

One issue of the outcome: Candidates learned not to concede too early, Busch adds. "1 of Gore's political problems throughout the five weeks was that he had conceded to Bush, so withdrew his concession, then he was widely seen every bit a bad loser," he says. "Ever since 2000, both parties accept maintained a stable of attorneys prepared to swarm over the adjacent Florida on a moment's notice."

The 2000 election dispute besides contributed to the growing polarization in American politics, according to Busch. "Democrats saw Bush-league as a president who snuck in past the practiced graces of the Supreme Courtroom, and Republicans saw Gore and Democrats as people who would modify rules in the middle of the game merely to concord on to power," he says.

READ MORE: five Presidents Who Lost the Pop Vote But Won the Election

hedrickimbly1980.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.history.com/news/2000-election-bush-gore-votes-supreme-court