The 2000 Presidential Election
The 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was one of the closest elections in American history and was ultimately determined by the votes in Florida. Only 537 votes separated the candidates, forcing a controversial recount that was only resolved when the Supreme Court ruled the recount unconstitutional. With this decision, George W. Bush was awarded Florida’s electoral votes and declared the winner. Despite lingering concerns and even though he had won the popular vote nationally, Al Gore conceded the election, and the public accepted Bush as their new president.
Issue
The 2000 presidential election between George Bush, the governor of Texas, and Al Gore, the vice president, was one of the closest presidential races in American history. Although Gore had won the national popular vote by half a million votes, the two candidates were neck-and-neck in the electoral college, with Florida’s votes in position to determine the winner. After all of the ballots were counted, Bush came out on top by 537 votes in the state. However, because the margin of victory was less than 0.5%, Florida law dictated that the ballots had to be recounted.
The machine recount again determined Bush to be the victor, but Gore contested the result because of reported voter count errors. The Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gore and ordered manual recounts in all counties with a significant number of observed undervotes. In response to this ruling, Bush filed a suit that was heard by the US Supreme Court. The Court sided in favor of Bush, declaring that the recount should stop altogether. With this ruling, Florida halted the recount and Gore conceded the election.
Causes
The Constitution dictates that every state has the jurisdiction to decide voting methods and equipment for elections. Consequently, there is no uniformity in how to count ballots throughout the country. The voting equipment in Florida proved to be particularly troublesome for the 2000 election. Due to undervotes, overvotes, and Palm Beach County’s confusing butterfly ballot design, the election resulted in an electoral dispute over who was the winner in Florida.
Another factor that likely contributed to the dispute was the mistaken purging of 12,000 eligible voters from the voter rolls prior to the November vote. In an election decided by less than 1,000 votes, the loss of so many additional voters could have potentially changed the outcome of the election.
A solution for electoral disputes like this one is prescribed in the Constitution: the 12th Amendment states that when no presidential candidate has won a clear majority of the electoral votes, members in the House of Representatives choose who becomes president. However, the House has not elected the president since the Election of 1824, which infamously was known as the Corrupt Bargain of 1824. To avoid delegitimizing the presidency in the eyes of the public again, the House has avoided this procedure of voting since then.
Since the House of Representatives was not going to vote on who should become president, the Supreme Court effectively decided the outcome of the election by ruling in favor of Bush in the case Bush v. Gore. In the first part of their two-part decision, the judges voted 7-2 in favor of Bush, stating that the Florida Supreme Court’s mandate for hand recounts was above their authority and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The justices made this ruling because the various Florida precincts and counties used different standards to count ballots. Since the safe-harbor deadline was approaching, the Court also determined in a 5-4 decision that there was not enough time to come up with another method to recount votes, so the process should stop altogether.
Outcome
Although the Supreme Court’s ruling supported Bush’s victory, 50% of Americans did not believe he won the election fairly. Nonetheless, over 70% of those polled still stated that they would accept Bush as the legitimate president despite the process used to determine the winner. In addition, public trust in the Supreme Court did not waver even though many experts considered the Court’s decision in Bush v Gore a case of judicial activism. The Gore campaign’s acceptance of the Supreme Court ruling, along with the public’s acceptance of Bush as president, upheld the long-standing tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.
This event highlighted a failing in the process described by the 12th Amendment for electing a president when no candidate gets a majority of the electoral votes. The process has not worked for two centuries and is especially not workable in the modern political climate.
To prevent more election controversies such as the one that occurred in Florida, manufacturers have made significant improvements in the accuracy of voting machines, and lawmakers have more clearly defined what counts as a vote and what does not. Despite these measures, the 2000 election sowed the seeds of discord in the American public over the fairness of elections. Claims of voter fraud, albeit unsubstantiated, have become more common. In addition, the purging of votes in Florida during the 2000 election set the stage for the more emboldened era of voter suppression seen today.
Feature image: Florida’s infamous butterfly ballot used in the 2000 election
