THE ELECTION OF 2000
History in the making - that's what they called the election of 2000, but not until after the
election should have been over. A month after Election Day, the United States was still
unsure about who its next President would be.
The Candidates
Vice President Al Gore and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman headed the Democratic
ticket. Texas Governor George Bush and former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney
headed the Republican ticket. For weeks before the election, polls showed Gore and Bush
running neck and neck, too close to call nationally and in many states. Add to the mix the
popularity of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and a handful of other third-party
candidates, such as the Reform Party's Pat Buchanan, the results from election night
promised to be very interesting. And they were.
The Dates
In 2000, Election Day fell on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Electors must have been
appointed by December 12, 2000. Electoral College Day was Monday, December 18. The
deadline for receipt of the electoral votes by the President of the Senate was Wednesday,
December 27, 2000. Congress convened on Wednesday, January 3, 2001. The electoral
votes were counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2001. Inauguration Day
was Saturday, January 20, 2001.
Election Night
The networks were chomping at the bit to be the first out of the starting gate, and when 7
pm Eastern time rolled by, they were ready to start making predictions. Vermont was an
easy pick, with exit polls showing the state firmly in Gore's camp. Other states quickly
fall into one camp or the other, including Florida into Gore's column. The networks had
vowed, as in the past, not to call an election until all of the polls in a certain state had all
closed - one problem in Florida is that part of the panhandle is in the Central time zone,
and when Florida was called, some polls were still open.
Bush pulled out with an early lead, but with just a handful of states accounted for even a
40 point deficit was nothing for Gore to be worried about. As the night wore on, the
networks began to hedge on Florida - though polling data showed Gore with the lead
there, actual returns were starting to look to be more in Bush's favor. By 10 o'clock, most
of the networks had taken Florida out of Gore's column and placed it back into the
undecided column.
For several hours, as more and more states came in and more and more projections were
made, Bush and Gore swapped the lead, finally settling on a 242-242 electoral vote tie.
This projection was made in the late hours of the evening ... and in the wee hours of the
morning, returns from now-crucial Florida, with its 25 votes, began to swing in Bush's
favor. Many networks call Florida for Bush and are able to declare him the winner at 2:15
a.m. Ready to concede to Bush, Gore placed a call. In the later words of Barbara Bush, "I
was the mother of a President for about 30 minutes." Before Gore could give his
concession speech, his advisors watched the web site for the Florida Board of Elections
and watched as Bush's lead waned, at one point down to only 200 votes. His advisors told
him that it was too close, and Gore had to call Bush to retract his concession. The
networks flip-flopped again, taking Florida out of Bush's column and placing it back into
the undecided group.
Bush had a lead of about 1700 votes in Florida, out of almost 6 million cast. Florida law
demands a recount in such a close count, and as if the week decided it could not be
outdone by the night, the wheels are set in motion for an electoral horse race.
The Day After
With a recount triggered, the nation waited. With a margin of victory of only 1700 votes,
anything could happen. Things that usually are not relevant to victory suddenly became
so. Overseas absentee ballots are a perfect example. Florida, by law, did not finish
counting them until November 17. With several thousand ballots sent out, and more
coming back all the time, they could make for a decisive win one way or the other.
Different balloting methods were examined and called into question, including one done
by punching perforated holes out of ballot cards. This so-called butterfly ballot design
was the source of complaints by many, mostly seniors, that the ballot was confusing and
charges that the design caused an abnormally high number of votes for Buchanan in one
county the ballot was used. Calls for a re-vote in one populous county were eventually
denied on November 20th.
Quick recounts were done immediately following Election Day, and in doing so the final
vote tally changed from a margin if over 1700 votes for Bush to one of just over 300
votes. In Palm Beach county, 19,000 ballots were found to be spoiled and were discarded.
More Floridians began to demand a re-vote, something unprecedented in electoral
history, and all eventually denied. The Gore campaign started to issue calls for, and
eventually court hearings demanding, a manual recount of votes.
Meanwhile, with the outcome of Florida uncertain, other states start to show signs of
trouble. In New Mexico, Gore had an early lead, but a programming error was found that
pushed Bush into the lead. His lead was so slim as to trigger a recount. During recounts,
as few as four votes separated them, before another error was found that gave Gore a 500
vote advantage. In Oregon, which uses a mail-in ballot only, delays in counting votes
caused the election returns to be delayed, though Gore maintained a more sizeable lead
(though still "slim": 5000 votes out of 1.4 million). Both camps began to eye close races
in other states, to see if recounts might be warranted. Neither New Mexico nor Oregon
alone or combined would win the election for either man, but some other combination of
states could.
The Florida Controversies
On November 14, 2000, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris was handed a court
ruling that upheld her order that all counties in Florida must have certified election
returns in to her office by 5:00 pm on that day (by Florida statute, one week following the
election). The judge did specifically say, however, that the Secretary may not summarily
dismiss amended returns that were sent in after the deadline. In the certified returns, Bush
held a 300-vote lead. On the 15th, several counties decided to proceed with recounts,
trying to beat the November 17th deadline for overseas absentee ballots. Heavy hitters
from both parties were out in force in Florida, with former US Secretary of State Warren
Christopher heading the Gore team, and former US Secretary of State James Baker
heading the Bush team.
Ten days after the election, the controversy swirled around two key questions in Florida.
First, was it legal for some counties to do a manual recount of ballots? And second, was it
legal for the Florida Secretary of State to reject the recount numbers after the statutory
deadline had passed. Several counties were counting ballots by hand, bolstered by a terse
ruling from the Florida Supreme Court that said they could continue, though the ruling
spoke nothing of the second point. Lawyers for the Bush campaign tried to stop all hand
recounts, saying that hand recounting is inherently error-prone and subject to bias. The
Gore camp argued that hand counts has been used for centuries and that the only way to
instill faith in the election outcome was to resolve nagging count concerns.
Though the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the Florida vote could not be certified until
after it had heard arguments from both sides, pushing the deadline to no earlier than the
20th of November, the counting of overseas absentee ballots went ahead as planned. The
reported results were highly in Bush's favor, giving him an eventual state-wide lead of
930 votes. Legal wrangling continued through the end of the week, with most court
rulings pointing toward allowing manual recounts of ballots. Democrats said that the
process provided the most accurate way of counting, where the Republicans countered
that hand counting was fraught with human error or deliberate tampering. Over the
weekend, with the state Supreme Court's ruling to back them, several counties proceeded
with a manual recount.
The Florida Supreme Court
The Florida Supreme Court heard two and a half hours of arguments from both the Bush
and Gore camps on the 20th. The Gore camp argued that there is no hurry to the
certification of the election, since US law states that electors do not need to be appointed
until December 12. The counties that wished to do recounts ought to be done with the
recounts by that time, and the Court should err on the side of caution, allowing every
ballot to be counted. The Bush camp argued that the more time that slips by, the more
chance there is for fraud in the recount process; that Florida law plainly states when the
counting and recounting deadlines are; and that it is not the place of the judiciary to step
on the shoes of the executive departments charged with certifying the election in law duly
passed by the legislature. For a day and a half, the Court deliberated on the issue.
On the 21st of November, late in the evening, the Court did rule, saying that the Florida
Secretary of State must continue to accept returns from counties doing recounts, but
setting a deadline of no later than 5 p.m. on November 26th (as this is a Sunday, the
Court stated that if the Secretary's office was not to be open, then an alternate deadline of
9 a.m. on November 27th would substitute - the Secretary assured Floridians that her
office would be open on the 26th). The 43-page ruling did not address some issues, such
as the countability of some of the ballots. The date chosen by the Court were designed to
allow ample time for manual recounts to be finished, and to allow ample time for either
candidate to protest the results under Florida law, and still meet the December 12th date
set in US law for the appointment of electors.
Vice President Gore appeared on national TV that night, saying that he thought
democratic principles were prevailing. He also put the kibosh on some thoughts of asking
Bush electors to defect to the Gore camp on Electoral College Day, stating plainly that he
did not want to short-circuit the constitutional process.
Completing the Count
In Florida's Broward and Palm Beach Counties, manual recounts which started prior to
the Supreme Court ruling continued unabated. But in populous Dade County, the
canvassing board finally decided not to do any manual recounting, considering the time
provided by the Court to still be too little to recount its over 600,000 votes. A proposal to
examine all "under vote" ballots (those rejected by the machine counters because of no
Presidential preference indicated) was rejected. Initial returns from the other two counties
showed only small net gains, but in both directions - Palm Beach for Bush, Broward for
Gore, and counting continued through the Thanksgiving holiday. The Bush camp, on the
22nd, appealed the Florida Supreme Court's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Not ready to rest on its laurels, the Bush camp also filed suits on the 25th and 26th
against several counties over the counting, or non-counting, of overseas absentee ballots.
Armed with the knowledge that the majority of uncounted votes were from military
personnel whose ballots did not meet technical requirements such as proper postmarks,
the Bush team had a strong military following. The argument was that just as partially
poked holes are being counted as proof of voter intent in Broward and Palm Beach
counties, a signed ballot, even if not valid under other technicalities, should imply intent
on the part of the absentee voter.
Adding drama to the already exciting, or perhaps arduous, story, Republican Vice
Presidential hopeful Cheney was hospitalized on the 22nd for what doctors called a minor
heart attack. Speculation began to fly about how the Electoral College would handle it if
Cheney could not serve. The situation was not without precedent, however, and
confidence in the College despite Cheney's health was as high (or as low, depending to
whom you spoke) as ever. Cheney was released a few days after being admitted,
promoting the notion of healthful living.
The End ... But Not Really
Florida Secretary of State Harris's office was open for business on Sunday the 26th, in
order to receive any recount numbers and for the purpose of certifying the election. In
accordance with the trend of the three weeks past, there was no lack of drama. In Palm
Beach County, the canvassing board raced to finish counting ballots before the 5pm
deadline. When it was apparent that they would need a couple extra hours, the board sent
partial recounts to the Secretary and pleaded for extra time. The Secretary denied the
extra time and rejected the partial numbers. She used the county's previous recount
numbers instead, and certified the election: By a vote total of 2,912,790 to 2,912,253, or a
difference of 537 votes, Bush was certified the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes.
Bush supporters were ecstatic, and Bush himself appeared on TV on the evening of
November 26th to ask the Gore camp to accept the certification and stop any legal
proceedings. He announced the appointment of his chief of staff and announced that
Cheney would be heading the transition team. But the Gore team was not ready to give
up. It was angry about the rejection of the Palm Beach results, and was also challenging
the lack of hand recounts in several counties (Florida law requires that multi-county
challenges be heard in one county, causing hope for quick and uniform settlement). In
addition, in Seminole County, individual voters were challenging absentee ballots that
had been sent after ballot applications were allegedly altered by Republican workers to
fill in missing required information, and in two counties, local Republicans challenged
the disqualification of overseas ballots that had not been properly postmarked.
Officially, the election entered the "contest" phase, a period of time following
certification in which challenges to election results could be filed. So though it seemed
like the end, the Secretary's announcement on the 26th was really just another beginning.
Gore went on TV on the evening of the 27th to explain his position. To justify the
continued court challenges, he said that "ignoring votes means ignoring democracy
itself." He vowed to try to ensure that every vote in Florida is counted, regardless of
whom the winner would then turn out to be. He cited some counties where thousands of
votes had gone uncounted since Election Day, and blamed Republicans for blocking
efforts to count all ballots. Most pundits agreed that both Bush and Gore had valid points
to make, but that Gore was the one under the gun. Americans were being patient, but
their patience was not unlimited.
The United States Supreme Court
In a move some found surprising, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear part of the Bush's
November 22nd appeal. Though it rejected several of Bush's points of appeal, it did agree
to hear arguments a week later, on December 1, concerning the ruling of the Florida
Court that allowed hand recounts in some counties but not all. Bush argued that this was
a violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. The Court set a very tight
schedule for the filing of arguments and replies. The Court asked that both sides address
what they thought the consequences would be if the Court found the Florida election to
not be in accordance with 3 USC 5, which deals with the appointment of electors. It also
rejected an appeal of a decision not to halt the manual recounts, effectively allowing the
counties still counting to continue to do so unfettered.
On Friday, December 1, the Court heard the oral arguments from both sides. The hearing
was remarkable in several ways. First, both sides were given 45 minutes to present their
case, 15 minutes more than normal. Second, audio tapes of the hearing were released
soon after the hearing was over, a direct departure from the normal end-of-term release of
tapes. Lastly, the speed at which the case had been heard and with which the justices
returned with a verdict was very unusual.
The Contest Phase
The contest phase of the election was in full swing when Florida's legislature decided that
it needed to be prepared. On December 12, according to federal law, electors had to be
selected. Most agreed that there was no flexibility in this date. It was possible, the
legislature believed, that the court cases concerning the election might not be resolved by
the 12th, and rather than be caught by surprise, Republican-dominated legislature started
to plan a possible special session. The Gore camp appeared ready to prevent this in any
way possible, asking the judge in the Leon County recount case to expedite the
proceedings. Gore also asked for an ordered recount of disputed ballots in Dade and Palm
Beach, a request which was denied. The judge did agree that all of those two counties'
ballots should be moved to Tallahassee, where the case was being heard. The ballots in
question numbered just about a million.
The judge in the case, N. Sanders Sauls, opened his court on the Saturday immediately
after the Supreme Court hearing. His task was to decide if the recounts of the Palm Beach
and Dade county ballots should proceed. Throughout the day on Saturday the 2nd, and
almost the entire next day, the judge heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, on topics
ranging from voting machines to statistics. One voter testified to about his decision not to
vote, and he wondered if he might have somehow marked the ballot unintentionally. The
Bush team used its witness to call into question the entire "dimpled chad" question, or,
whether or not a mark on a push-hole ballot could be made in error. The Gore team
focused on 80 years of Florida election law to make the case that Gore's request for a
recount is not unusual and has much precedent in Florida's election history.
Sauls promised, after closing arguments late Sunday night, to render a decision the next
day.
Meanwhile, in Seminole county, the suit brought by voters in which the Gore camp had
not joined, was starting to gain attention - in that case, it is alleged that Republican Party
workers filled in incomplete absentee ballot requests, which the plaintiffs argue should
necessitate the elimination of all the county's 15,000 absentee ballots. The other cases
brought by Bush supporters also were still in the works, most to ask that rejected overseas
ballots be counted.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules
After just a few days, on December 4, the U.S. Supreme Court returned with their verdict
in the case they had heard. The aspect of that case was whether the Florida Supreme
Court overstepped its bounds in extending the tally submission deadline from the 14th to
the 26th. On the 14th, Bush had a 930-vote lead over Gore, and after the 26th it had
changed to a 537-vote lead. The immediate effects of the U.S. Supreme Court decision
were not apparent, though Leon County Judge Sauls put off his decision until after he
reviewed the opinion.
Technically, the Supreme Court ruling did not invalidate the ruling of the Florida
Supreme Court - it merely "set it aside." The opinion was unsigned, meaning that it is
unknown how many of the justices voted for the course of action. The Court remanded,
or sent back, the case to the Florida Supreme Court so that that court might have a chance
to better explain the reasons for why it extended the deadline. It declined to rule on the
legality or constitutionality of the Florida Court's ruling. The ruling did not change the
537-vote lead as the Bush camp had hoped.
Gore's Defeat
Judge Sauls did put off his decision in the Leon County case to review the Supreme Court
decision, but there was little to review - the two cases were not related in any legal way.
So just a few hours late, on December 4, 2000, Sauls ruled on the Palm Beach County
and Dade County recount contests. He found that there was no evidence presented by the
plaintiff (Gore) to suggest that a hand recount of the ballots in question would change the
outcome of the election. He rejected Gore's arguments on all counts. Immediately the
Gore camp appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, but the feeling in Florida and in
Washington was that the end was near. The Florida Supreme Court agreed to hear the
appeal directly, without going through normal appeals court processes, at least in part
because the deadline for selecting electors was now just a week away. The Gore
challenge was now much tougher - they could only argue that Sauls had made errors in
his conduct of the hearings or in his ruling, a standard few seemed to believe could be
proven.
The Florida Supreme Court announced that it would hear the appeal on Thursday the 7th
of December, with written arguments to be filed by noon the day before. Pundits on both
sides of the political spectrum saw this as Gore's last chance, most saying that even if
other options were available following the Supreme Court decision, Gore should concede
if he lost. Gore, putting on a brave face, said in a news conference on the 5th that he was
"optimistic." Bush, on the other hand, had the luxury of being the defendant, and was
using the time to explore options for his staff and Cabinet. Bush also got his first national
security briefing from the CIA, at the request of the Clinton administration (Gore, as Vice
President, already got a daily briefing).
On the evening of the 5th, Bush appeared for his first full television interview since the
election. In it, he expressed his belief that he had won the electoral vote, but insisted on
being called "Governor" and not "President-elect," because of all the outstanding suits.
He also declined to call for Gore to concede nor did he fault Gore for his efforts, saying
that both he and Gore had "poured our heart and soul" into the campaign.
The Last Gasp
With victory in the Florida Supreme Court appearing to be unlikely, all eyes turned to
court cases in Seminole and Martin Counties. Both were brought by local Democrats that
accused Republican election workers of altering absentee ballot applications, by adding
or fixing missing information, and, in the Martin County case, of removing the
applications from the county election supervisor's office. Though the Gore team was not
a party to the cases, both of which had hearings held on December 6th, many said that
Gore's best chances hinged on them. The plaintiffs were seeking to have all absentee
ballots thrown out, a move which could put Gore far into the lead, since Bush won a vast
majority of the ballots. The Seminole County case contested 15,000 ballots, the Martin
County case about 10,000. Both cases were heard in the circuit court in Leon County.
Another suit filed in Bay County alleges that Florida Governor Jeb Bush sent letters to
residents illegally urging them to stay home and vote by absentee ballot instead of at the
polls. It sought to affect some 20,000 ballots.
Not to be outdone, state Republicans contested the rules used to throw out some overseas
absentee ballots in seven counties. The GOP claimed in particular that procedures used
disenfranchised military personnel in particular. The suit stated that the lack of a
postmark on mail coming from military post offices should not be used as a basis to
exclude a ballot. The suit is similar to one filed earlier by the GOP against 14 counties,
but later dropped. The case was heard in U.S. District Court on the 5th.
In the Florida Legislature, as the December 12th federal deadline for the appointment of
electors drew near, arrangements were being made to hold a special session to appoint
those electors if the legal challenges were not yet complete by the deadline.
The Seminole County hearing was held all day on the 6th, and the Martin County hearing
was held in sessions book-ending the Seminole County hearing, with testimony running
until midnight. There was general agreement that technical violations of the law occurred,
but the issue was whether or not the violations amounted to fraud. The Democratic
lawyers tried to paint the filling in of missing data on absentee ballot applications as a
grand conspiracy, while Republican lawyers tried to paint the same acts as those of wellmeaning political workers trying to ensure that a Party error did not disenfranchise voters.
Both trials continued on the 7th, marking one month since Election Day, with closing
arguments in both setting up rulings the next day.
Also on the 7th, the Florida Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Gore appeal of
the case denied by Judge Sauls. The justices seemed skeptical that the requested recount
could be completed by the December 12th deadline, but Democratic lawyers assured the
Court that the recount would be finished if allowed. Republican lawyers' main argument
against the recount was that the courts had no business ruling in the case at all. After just
over an hour of oral arguments, the justices took the case under consideration, promising
a rapid response.
Other possible trouble loomed for the Bush/Cheney ticket on the 7th, outside of Florida.
A federal court granted a hearing on the issue of whether Cheney was a resident of Texas.
Cheney claimed residency in Wyoming, though he had physically lived in Texas for quite
some time before changing his status. If he was found to be a resident of Texas, Texas
electors would not be able to vote for both Bush and Cheney, according to the 12th
Amendment. Though several lower courts had thrown out the case, the appeals court
decided to take up the issue. The issue sounded worse than it was as the press
misreported that no elector can vote for two people from the same state. The seriousness
of the issue was no less important for Texas electors, however, because of the closeness
of the election. But quickly the judges in the case ruled that Cheney met the constitutional
requirements for citizenship in Wyoming, clearing the way for all Republican electors to
vote for both Bush and Cheney.
End Game
December 8, 2000 was lined up to be a fateful day for the Gore campaign. Rulings in
both absentee ballot application cases were expected, along with one from the Florida
Supreme Court, and a special session of the Legislature to consider its appointment
electors. Though delayed, the judges in the Seminole and Martin County cases both ruled
that the absentee ballots were not to be thrown out, with one judge saying that though
there were irregularities, the integrity of the election had not been violated. The Gore
team, which had been watching the cases but had never been a party to them, looked to
the Supreme Court for the last ruling. The Florida Supreme Court, on the 12th, upheld the
decisions in the Seminole and Martin County cases.
After weeks of defeats, many felt the Supreme Court would deal the final blow - but
instead, in a split 4-3 decision, the Florida Court ruled that not only did the disputed Dade
and Palm Beach county undervote ballots have to be hand counted, but all undervotes in
the whole state would have to be recounted. Because of the time crunch, the Court
ordered the counts begin immediately. Additionally, the Court added unaccounted votes
from Palm Beach and Dade Counties, cutting Bush's lead from 537 votes to 154. But the
victory was short-lived. Though statewide standards were set and some actual counting
got under way, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in on Saturday, December 9th. By a 5-4
vote, it stopped all recounts and called for a hearing on the morning of the 11th, to hear
arguments as to the legality of the newly ordered recount. Once again the courts were
extending the process ... and polls showed more and more people were tiring.
Amid raucous protests outside, the U.S. Supreme Court met on the morning of the 11th.
Bush's attorneys asked the court to uphold its stay of the recounts, charging that the
Florida Supreme Court far over stepped its bounds in ordering the recount. It called the
Court's recounting scheme "arbitrary, capricious, unequal, and standardless," and a
violation of the Article 2 powers of the state legislature to decide how electors are to be
chosen. The Gore team countered that the Florida Court was simply interpreting the laws
provided by the Florida legislature, as all courts do, and urged the U.S. Supreme Court to
rule promptly so that counting could be completed before the December 12th Title 3
federal deadline for selection of electors.
December 12, the day that 3 USC 5 said that electors must be chosen, came in like a rush.
What would the Florida Legislature do? What about the Supreme Court? The legislature
did what it felt it had to do to ensure that Florida was represented in the Electoral
College. On the 12th, its House voted 79-41 to approve the Bush slate of electors. The
State Senate decided to wait until the 13th to take up the issue, hoping the Supreme Court
will have ruled by then.
The decision came at a late hour, 10 p.m. Eastern time, and it did not bode well for Gore.
By a vote of 7-2, the Court said that the Florida Supreme Court had erred in calling for a
manual recount. But by only a 5-4 vote, it declared that the counting of the undervotes
only amounted to a violation of the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. It sent the
case back to the Florida Supreme Court, essentially saying that there may be remedies for
Gore, but whatever the remedy, it could not include a recount. With a recount seeming to
be the only possible way of keeping Gore's chances alive, the contest appeared to finally
be over. Calls from even ardent supporters began to ring out - Gore should finally
concede the election.
The Gore team decided to take the night to examine the decision and see if any options
were left open. By early next morning, it was clear that there weren't. The Vice President
prepared to address the nation on the evening of the 13th, as did the Governor an hour
thereafter.
As expected Gore conceded in his speech. He commented on the Supreme Court ruling
days before, saying "Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court's
decision, I accept it." At the same time, he called for all Americans to unite behind
President Bush: "I personally will be at his disposal, and I call on all Americans — I
particularly urge all who stood with us to unite behind our next president. This is
America. Just as we fight hard when the stakes are high, we close ranks and come
together when the contest is done." Gore concluded by saying: "As for the battle that ends
tonight, I do believe as my father once said, that no matter how hard the loss, defeat
might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."
Bush's speech, given from the floor of the Texas House, was conciliatory. Bush was
clearly trying to build a bipartisan feeling from the starting gate: "Tonight I chose to
speak from the chamber of the Texas House of Representatives because it has been a
home to bipartisan cooperation... We've had spirited disagreements. And in the end, we
found constructive consensus. It is an experience I will always carry with me, an example
I will always follow." He promised to serve to the best of his ability, to be a President for
all Americans: "I was not elected to serve one party, but to serve one nation. The
president of the United States is the president of every single American, of every race and
every background. Whether you voted for me or not, I will do my best to serve your
interests and I will work to earn your respect."
The race run, the challenges over, the decision made, the electorate breathed a collective
sigh of relief.
The Aftermath
Throughout the nation, people began to take second looks at the Electoral College
system. Gore was pretty clearly the popular vote winner, though only by about 500,000
votes out of over 100 million cast. Subjects that used to cause students' eyes to glaze over
in civics class were suddenly the focus of barroom, water cooler, and dinner table
discussions. Rumors and theories were flying about like so many swarms of mosquitoes.
News organizations began their own counts of the disputed ballots, once they became
public records, in an attempt to put the issue to rest and to find out, in the words of the
Miami Herald, "What went wrong." Most found that Gore would not have overcome his
vote deficit, even with the most liberal of standards for counting partially-marked ballots.
Calls for some sort of national standards for balloting, to set residency requirements, and
to set methods of vote tabulation and how to determine when a recount should be done
and when a hand recount should be done. Everyone agreed that there were flaws in the
system, flaws which may not be fixable, and flaws which usually had a negligible effect
on the outcome of any one election, let alone a national election. How to make changes is
another story.
In his dissent of the December 12th decision, U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul
Stevens lamented that the Bush case relied on "an unstated lack of confidence in the
impartiality and capacity of the state judges who would make the critical decisions if the
vote count were to proceed." He echoed the fears of many that the impartiality of the
judiciary, at the federal level too, but particularly at the state level, was suspect.
Of the Bush presidency, no one knew how the election dispute would affect its
effectiveness. Calls for a bipartisan Cabinet, unheard of but for a few notable exceptions,
rang out. Democrats chomped at the bit for the 2002 election season, hoping voter
distrust of the system and some lingering animosity or suspicion of the Republicans
would help carry them to the congressional leadership, and ultimately to the White House
in 2004. Republicans were faced with a close House and a tied Senate, and moderate
members of both parties were courted.
The 2000 election could be called a watershed event in American history. But it will only
be those who write the history books a generation from now who will be able to say for
sure - embroiled as we are today in the heat of it all, we cannot tell. Suffice it to say, it
was an interesting time to be an observer of American politics.