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Amy Busch
Mr. Baumbach
Scholars Civics
18 May 2011
Bush v. Gore
The Presidential election of 2000 resulted in a perplexing web of political controversy
and court cases between candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore. Many people still debate to
this day who should have rightfully been elected President, but regardless of their opinions,
George Bush became president in the year’s election. Researching the situation is a difficult
process, and understanding the final decision on the dilemma can only be achieved through
learning the factors leading to the decision of the case.
After the votes had been counted in every state on Election Day, Florida announced that
George W. Bush had won the majority of popular votes in the state by a margin of only 0.5%,
which, by Florida State Law, gave the candidates the option of requesting a recount (Bush). Al
Gore decided to request a recount of the votes in a few select counties in which the votes
tabulated showed unusual trends, as well as counties that reported unusually high numbers of
undervotes.
Undervotes are ballots that were not counted by machines because of confusion
concerning the chads. A recount includes going back and manually inspecting each ballot to
determine the votes the machine was too sensitive to register. Unfortunately, each county had
varying rules when recounting. Some counties had more relaxed recounting methods that
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included counting chads that were “pregnant” or “dimpled”, while others did not. This violated
the equal protection laws under the Fourteenth Amendment, and this problem, in combination
with overvotes not being recounted, was one of the factors that determined the outcome of Bush
v. Gore. On December 12, 2000 the Supreme Court announced that they were reversing the
Florida Supreme Court’s decision to recount the ballots due to violation of the Fourteenth
Amendment (Bush).
At this point in the conflict, The Supreme Court ruled that no constitutionally-valid
recount could be performed before the previously set December 12 deadline. This ended the
ability for Florida to perform a recount and not much more could be done in the state, despite
voting confusion concerning butterfly ballots (Supreme). The time restraints of the Constitution
also played a major role in the decision of the case. There is a specific deadline for the election
winner to be announced, and that deadline was rapidly approaching. The Supreme Court decided
that the original vote count would be the final count and that nothing more could be done to sway
the votes in Al Gore’s favor. The case was over, and George W. Bush was President.
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Bibliography
"Bush v. Gore." 4LawSchool.com: For Law, Pre-law Students and Legal Professionals. Web. 15 May 2011.
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"Bush v. Gore - Introduction, Election Night, The Controversy Begins, The U.s. Supreme Court Steps In
Read More: Bush v. Gore - Introduction, Election Night, The Controversy Begins, The U.s.
Supreme Court Steps In." Law.jrank.org. Net Industries. Web. 15 May 2011.
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"Supreme Court Case Study: Bush v. Gore - For Dummies." How-To Help and Videos - For Dummies.
Wiley Publishing. Web. 15 May 2011. .