2000__The_Year_the_Courts_Decided_the_Election

2000: The Year the Courts Decided the Election On November 7, 2000, American voters went to the polls to elect the 43rd president of the United States. Ritualistically, the nation watched that evening for the election returns. The tallies for Democrat Albert Gore and Republican George W. Bush teetered in the makings of a dead heat. It soon became obvious that Florida would be the deciding factor. Exit polling in the state showed Gore as the projected winner. So, at 7:49 P.M., NBC was the first station to forecast Gore as the winner of the state and the general election, with the other stations soon following suit. As the evening gave way to the night, the state was put back up for grabs and then landed in the Bush column. In the early hours of the morning, the state was once again listed as undecided before finally having Bush hold a razor-thin advantage. Florida law in this matter provided some odd provisions for closure. First, an automatic recount is invoked when elections are close. This requires no intervention or agreement from political bodies but is rather part of the process of counting the votes. Then there is court, florida, supreme, courts, state, election, political, decision, states, made, electors, united, statute, issues, gore, decisions, bush, without, recounts, rather, court’s, being, people, law, judgement, federal, constitution, clause, branch, votes, soon, ruling, right, recount, protest, protection, popular, much, method, manner, limited, legal, involvement, equal, certification, both, winner, scenario, provides, provided