Bush v Gore

646 Words2 Pages

Bush v. Gore

Bush v. Gore was a controversial case that was heard on December 11, 2000. This case decided the outcome of the 2000 presidential election between Vice President Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush.

The election took place on Nov 7, 2000. Under our electoral college system each state votes for our new president separately, a winner is then declared in each state and is awarded “electoral votes” that is equal to the states number of representatives in the House and Senate. Gore led Bush 266-246 and 270 votes are required for victory. Florida with 25 electoral votes did not have an official winner because the result was inside of the margin of error for machine counting.

Gore knew the only way to figure this out was to have a manual recount of several counties ballots. As Palm Beach County was recounting its ballots Florida Secretary Harris, a Republican and co-chair of the Florida Bush campaign, officially certified the election for Bush. In reaction to this decision Gore and Palm Beach filed suit against Bush and Harris in Florida Supreme court demanding that the recount should go on. On November 22, Bush appealed to the United States Supreme Court against Palm Beach County Canvassing Board stating the decision was in violation of a federal statute requiring electors to be finished at a given point before the Electoral College met.

After many more suits were filed oral arguments in Bush v. Gore were brought before the US Supreme Court on December 11, 2000 by lawyers representing both sides. Due to the nature of the case the court gave its opinion in only 16 hours after hearing the arguments.

Bush’s representation questioned that, Does recounts in Florida violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution? Because all the votes were being counted unevenly, with standards varying from county to county, where recounts in counties where he could have majority were not being conducted. Bush Argued the decision went against the Constitution stating “nor shall any State…. Deny to any person within the equal protection of the laws.”

Gore’s representation responded that the Florida Supreme court hade done everything it could to establish equal treatment of both parties, and that requiring all ballots to be treated in the same manner would require a new federal standard for counting votes. Gore also claimed that ending recounts was not a good way to settle this extraordinary dispute.

Show More
Related

  • Watershed Years

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... of Florida, under the Electoral College, electoral votes for the candidate running for office receive a plurality of their popular vote. Therefore, whoever gets the majority of the national electoral votes wins the election. Bush won by a narrow margin of these votes resulting in a mandatory machine recount, which afterwards concluded that Bush’s victory margin, was even narrower. This allowed Al Gore to request a recount in the counties of his choice, so naturally he chose the counties whose votes were historically democratic. The uncertainty continued through the circuit courts all the way to The Florida Supreme Court who ruled in Bush v. Gore that there was not enough time to recount the popular vote ballots without violating the United States constitution. The recounting of the ballots would have violated the Fourteenth Amendments “Equal Protection Clause”.

    Read More

  • President George W. Bush - A Liar, a Thief, and a Criminal

    954 Words  | 2 Pages

    It was a sunny day in Florida, and as the votes were counted from the controversial “Butterfly Ballot”, George W. Bush was ahead of Al Gore by a tiny margin of votes. It was then seen that a staggering 1,500 votes went un-counted. As the people of America demanded a recount, the Bush Administration did not want a recount, because they knew they would lose the election. So they took the matter to the courts, and won. Until this day, no full recount has ever been done. It is also very suspicious that the winning candidates brother was governor of Florida.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay on Electoral Colleges

    378 Words  | 1 Pages

    Secondly, do you agree with election 2000? I surely don't, I mean the wrong president won the election. Gore received 500,000 more votes than Bush. But who won the election, Bush. All because of a policy called the Electoral College. It is a very controversial issue. I know that many people are unhappy about this election. I thought we were a democracy! And we choose are president, not electors.

    Read More

  • Malaise Of The 1970s Case Study

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bush. The election of this race would proceed to be a “Florida Fiasco” controversy. Many Americans felt that the election was not legitimate because Al Gore should have won the 2000 Presidential Election. He had 500,000 more votes than Bush. He won the popular vote. The electoral vote gave Bush a small margin of winning. They believed the machine had counted the ballots incorrectly because the votes were too close. Florida law decided to recount the ballots. The percentage of black voters were inaccurate. Florida’s voting system misread non-felons as felons and appeared on the “Felon’s List” so they could not vote. Millions were restricted to vote at the voting polls. Democrats demanded a manual count on ballots. Most of the Republican were voting officials and they eliminated overseas ballots due to deadline date. This disqualified their ballots which reduced the votes for Al Gore. It narrowed his chances of winning the 2000 Presidential Election. The votes finally resulted in a victory of 537 votes for Bush. This election was the first in U.S. history for the Supreme Court to be the ultimate deciding

    Read More

  • Case Study: Debs V. United States

    311 Words  | 1 Pages

    The landmark court case I chose, Debs v. United States, challenged the First Amendment and our freedom of speech. (Wikipedia) Eugene V. Debs was an American labor and political leader and five-time Socialist Party of America candidate for the American Presidency. Debs made an anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio, protesting US involvement in World War I which after led to him being arrested under the Espionage Act of 1917. As a result, he was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison and deprived for life. Moreover, the quarrel of the Federal government was that Debs prevented the drafting of soldiers into the United States Army by attempting to trigger riot and treachery by. However, the altercation in approval of Debs was that he was authorize

    Read More

  • Bush v. Gore

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the main arguments in the Bush V. Gore case was that the Florida vote recount was unconstitutional according to the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause (Oyez.org). The Equal Protection Clause states that “no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal p...

    Read More

  • Questioning the Electoral College System

    1971 Words  | 4 Pages

    Williams, N. R. (2012). Why the National Popular Vote Compact Is Unconstitutional. Brigham Young University Law Review, 2012, 1523-1583

    Read More

  • 2000 Election Of 2000 Research Paper

    249 Words  | 1 Pages

    The presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore is the closest race in modern political history. The election could possibly be seen as, “endless” because it took 36 days, over 5 weeks to recount and determine the winner of the state Florida. Determining whether or not the election was legitimate because of this issue is hard to say. However, it is clear that the votes were tampered with and it took too long to figure out who won the state. Al Gore received 540,000 more votes in the popular vote in that nation than Bush, which in this election particularly is a significant number more. The decision allowed Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris's previous certification of George W. Bush as the winner of Florida's 25 electoral

    Read More

  • Recount Movie Essay

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    On March 16th, I watched the movie Recount directed by Ray Roach. After watching the movie, I was asked to, “Criticize whether the election of 2000, between G.W. Bush and Al Gore was legitimate.” I strongly believe the election was beyond unfair. From the very beginning of the movie you can tell that the votes were coming in close.. Ron Clane asks if the Democrats were going to win and another man responds, “Yes, but it will be a squeaker,” suggesting that this is a close match between the two of them. Both Republicans and Democrats knew that Florida was going to be the state that ultimately chose the next president of the United States, and when people started demanding recounts, Republicans did all they could in their power to stall or even stop recounts from being considered. Pat Buchanan went on television and stated that he believes people voted for him in the belief that they had actually voted for Al Gore. An example of Bush’s party trying to stop the votes from being counted was the fact that they purposely disrupted the hand counts that were

    Read More

  • 9/11 Propaganda

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the YouTube film, “Fahrenheit 9 11”, provided factual information on the the way George W. Bush actually won the election. Al Gore who was running for president at the time was actually winning according to the media at one point. Multiple news channel presented, Al Gore, as the winner of many states. However, Fox 5 News provided

    Read More

  • The Controversy Over the Electoral College System

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    A number of Americans fail to realize that when they vote they are not voting for the president and vice-president directly, but for electors who then cast their ballots in the Electoral College. Until the recent battle between Gov. George W. Bush and Vice-president Al Gore for the presidency, this new generation of American voters has never witnessed a controversial election. Historically, there have been problematic elections allowing voters to question this system. The Electoral College is now a process open to criticism and debate, specifically because many do not understand its origin or purpose today. On November 7, 2000, Election Day, I was excited to become an official voter. Considering myself mature, responsible, and finally of age to vote, I had mailed my registration, received my voter’s card, ready to become a participant in one of the most crucial events of the year. I was a faithful supporter of my candidate, crossing my fingers in hopes of victory. That night I watched CNN, eating my dinner and sipping a Diet Coke when the station announced Al Gore had won Florida, which held twenty-five electoral votes. Two hundred and seventy are needed to win, and presidential candidates Bush and Gore had switched leads all night.

    Read More

  • Roe versus Wade: The Path to Legalized Abortion

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    The case was argued before the Supreme Court on December 13, 1971, but a decision was not reached until January 22, 1973. Chief Justice Warren Burger, announced the 7-2 decision was in favor of Roe. This was because the court argued that the Texas statue violated Jane Roe’s constitutional right to privacy. (PBS.org) The ruling allowed for legal abortions during the entire pregnancy, but set up conditions to allow states to regulate abortion during the second and third trimesters (Cnn.com). The ruling affected laws in 46

    Read More

  • Electoral College

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 2000 Presidential Election has been nothing short of a fiasco on many levels. Historical in the sense that this has never happened in the United States before, but a fiasco, nonetheless. The popular vote shows Gore as winning the election, however, the popular vote does not determine the next tenant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That’s the job of the Electoral College. The winner of Florida’s electoral votes, and apparently of the election was Bush. Bush had won Florida’s 25 electoral votes. However, reports of voting irregularities, problems with the “butterfly ballot” and voters allegedly being turned away from the polls, raised concerns as to who the actual winner of the crucial Florida electoral votes was. The popular vote was so close that it required a recount, effectively taking the electoral votes, the election and the Presidency away from Bush.

    Read More

  • Differences Between Civil Rights In The 1950's And 1960s

    557 Words  | 2 Pages

    (2) Brown V. the Board of Education (1954): In 1954 the Supreme Court made one of the most important decisions in its long history. It decided in the case of Brown v. Board Of Education of Topeka that it was unconstitutional for states to maintain separate schools for African American and white children. This case over turned the "Separate but equal" doctrine established in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson back in 1896.

    Read More

  • Judicial Branch

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    This case is about the I amendment rights that included symbolic speech. In a demonstration, Greg Lee Johnson lit the flag of the U.S. on fire. Many people that were watching was insulted at this, so Johnson was charged and convicted of rudeness of an object that is honored. The case went onto the Supreme Court. When the Supreme court heard about the case, they sided with Johnson and reversed his conviction.

    Read More

More about Bush v Gore

Open Document