Bush v. Gore - Introduction, Election Night, The Controversy Begins, The U.s. Supreme Court Steps In

Bush v. Gore - Introduction

Bush v. Gore - Election Night

However, the polls had not yet closed in the Florida's panhandle, which is in the Central time zone. A few hours later, the lead swung to Bush, forcing the networks to retract their projections. By 2:15 EST, Bush appeared to have a decisive lead of about 50,000 votes, and all of the major networks were declaring Bush the winner. Gore even called Bush privately to concede. But while Gore was…

Bush v. Gore - The Controversy Begins

Second, Gore's legal team had discovered an unusually high number of "undervotes" (ballots that the tabulating machines had not counted as a vote for any presidential candidate) in counties that used punchcard voting. Florida's election law allows both candidates to "protest" an election by requesting a manual recount within seven days of the election, and…

Bush v. Gore - The U.s. Supreme Court Steps In

Meanwhile, Bush had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Florida Supreme Court's decision extending the deadline by which the counties had to submit their final counts. On December 4 the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the state supreme court's decision, remanding the case so the Florida high court could clarify the grounds of its decision. The U.S. Supreme Court expressed concerns …

Bush v. Gore - The Legacy Of Bush V. Gore

On January 6, 2001, Congress met to count the electoral college votes. Bush was declared the winner by a 271-266 margin, with one of Gore's electors abstaining in protest over the District of Columbia not having statehood. Fourteen days later George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd president of the United States. Following the inauguration, several news services set out to determine who …

Bush v. Gore - Further Readings

Bugliosi, Vincent. 2001 Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. Dershowitz, Alan M. 2001. Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. Gillman, Howard. 2001. The Votes That Counted: How the Court Decided the 2000 Presidential Election. Chicago: Univ. of Chi…