Analytical Essay: The Bush V. Gore

It doesn’t take a political expert to see that the 2000 presidential election between Bush and Gore was extremely illegitimate. This can be observed through the recount incident which took place in the state of Florida. Many people, especially seniors, felt that they had not voted for the right candidate, which was due to a confusing ballot setup. The ballots were called “butterfly ballots”. These ballots, as one could imagine, had candidates on either side which the voter could choose from. Seems simple enough, right? Unfortunately, that was not the case. The font on the ballots were extremely minuscule, as well as condensed. To add to that, the voter had to use a pin to make a puncture next to their selection. Some people, who were either

People went to bed one night thinking that Gore had won, but when they woke up they found out that bush had won with Florida’s twenty-five electoral votes. It happened on November 7, 2000. Bush charged that the recounts in Florida broke the rules of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. A 7-2 majority ruled that the Florida recount was being conducted unconstitutionally. The case was covered in controversy as the Majority versus minority opinion on the redress was split along the lines of the more reactionary justices voting in favor of Bush and the more liberal justices voting in favor of Gore. The minority disunity noted these issues and other including the principle of equality and

It is hard to believe that it will be a year since the Bush vs. Gore campaign was in it’s

Yet in the morning, I learn that Florida is again announced “too close to call” because by Florida law, the percentage difference between the candidates was so marginal, a recount was necessary. Is this possible to have such a close race and no president announced on Election Day? Because Al Gore had a slim lead in the popular vote, the decision of which

In 1992 the incumbent president George Bush was seeking reelection. It was the general consensus that he would be the 'hands down, no contest winner'. When the smoke had cleared and the votes were tallied, many were shocked at the results. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton had defeated the incumbent by a landslide! How could this be? How did the commander and chief of what could be considered the greatest victory in modern American history defeat the Iraqi army and one year later lose the election for the presidency? The answers to these questions as well as explanations for the outcome lie within the campaign strategies and tactics used by each candidate. There were various major political events and

As in the past, the media was covering the all important election. They had always relied on exit polls as the polls closed across the nation. In reality, the Florida results were just too close to call. Nevertheless, that did not stop the media from doing so. Not once, but twice, major news media outlets were erroneous in their report. Around 8pm, it was declared that Al Gore was the projected winner of the electoral votes in the state of Florida. However, a couple of hours later, the projection was retracted and restated as Florida as being too close to call. Then, just after 2am on November 8, the mistake was made for a second time. The major networks declared George W. as the winner. This even led to Al Gore calling the Governor to concede. However, as Gore prepared to address his supporters in Nashville, Tennessee, he was alert to the shrinking numbers in Bush¡¦s lead. The final total was now less than one half of a percent lead in favor of Bush. That immediately calls for a recount of votes under state law. Subsequently, Gore called Bush and retracted his concession. It wasn¡¦t over yet! One thing was, Al Gore had prevailed in the popular vote but without Florida¡¦s tally, the electoral vote was up in the air. The election wasn¡¦t over and the recounts began.

The night of the election it seemed as if the Vice President and candidate for the Democratic Party was poised for a close victor. As the polls closed along the eastern seaboard, exit polling information indicated a clear, but narrow lead for the Vice President as he still need to secure Florida and two states totaling 15 electoral votes or more to win the Presidency (Toobin, 18). At 7:49 EST, NBC called Florida and the election for Gore, and so did 2 of the 4 major television networks did the same in the following minutes. As the night continued Gore secured Minnesota and New Mexico, but confusion in exit polling data had led to a premature call for Gore (18, Toobin). As the red eye hours of the morning continued all four media outlets reported a flood of data from Volusia County, Daytona Beach put Bush up by more than 50,000 votes, thus the media outlets followed suit and eventually called Florida for Bush. Although a questionable disappearance of

Governor Bush was leading in the poles by 1,800, because it was so close Florida’s laws had to call for an automatic machine recount of votes. The votes were so close that Florida law let Gore the choice of a manual vote recount in the counties he wanted. The trial of Palm Beach Canvassing Board v. Katherine Harris was a response from the Bush campaign to state litigation against extending the deadline for recounts. Gore’s campaign finally agreed to Florida’s Supreme Court decision for the recount.

The election of 2000 was a very tight battle. This particular election came down to the state of Florida. Florida had 25 electoral votes at the time, so this state was extremely important. Nationwide, Al Gore lead George W. Bush by roughly 500,000 votes. This may seem like a large margin, but the race was not over. Gore still needed the correct amount of electoral votes. Ultimately, Bush won the election and served two terms as President of the United States. If you take a look at the numbers and the specific circumstances of this race, it is hard to believe that this race was legitimate. First and foremost, the state of Florida purged 20,000 registered voters and did not allow them cast their votes. Normally, this would affect both candidates.

Governor Bush was leading in the polls by 1,800, because it was so close Florida’s laws had to call for an automatic machine recount of votes. The votes were so close that Florida law lets Gore the choice of a manual vote recount in the counties he wanted. The trial of Palm Beach Canvassing Board v. Katherine Harris was a response from the Bush campaign to state litigation against extending the deadline for recounts. Gore’s campaign finally agreed to Florida’s Supreme Court decision for the recount.

This lead to the exclusion of several thousands of votes that could have potentially won Gore the election, and their exclusion was enough to grant some semblance of moral high ground against the Republican opposition. The Democrats made the claim that they should have been allowed to vote under florida law, but any attempts to allow them their vote proved fruitless. After extensive decrying of the Republican party, the Democrats were soon found to be the target of several improper allegations themselves. A number of “Overvotes” had been detected on several ballots of other counties, and this lead the Republicans to accuse the Democrats of voter fraud and the inclusion of illegal votes. The continuous stream of slander from both sides dragged on ad nauseum, interrupted only by a series of supreme court decisions presumably brought about by the influence the Republican party has on them. Everything from attempts to exclude armed service votes to changing the criteria for vote counting were employed, and to great

After everything was said and done the decisions by the courts were all legitimate, however, the counting of votes and the numbers that came out of them may have not been legitimate. For instance some counties would count the dimples in the voting ballots while others weren’t. Then there was Katherine Harris, all of her decisions were controversial and there wasn’t a single one that the people could be satisfied with. The results of some her choices were : direct insults to her, the delay of the election, and vote count loss. Others were going on saying that Bush was selected by Harris herself and he wasn’t fairly elected, this is based off of the choices she decided upon making. Some of those impactful choices would be her not extending the recount deadlines, the attempt to throw out overseas ballots that hadn’t arrived by the deadline, ordered the following counties to stop recounting :Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. Now along with some of that information lies the fact that the election process wasn’t fully developed and thought through for a situation of this sort.

The election of Bush v. Gore is known as one of the most controversial elections of all time, people often speculate the perspective of the election based on the popular vote and the way the candidates presented themselves. Known as the “Endless Election”, the events that took place during in the election led to a huge argument on who really won the election. People like to argue that election was rigged and that Gore should have been the POTUS.

However Al gore beat Bush in the popular vote by receiving almost 700,000 more votes.

In the election of 2000, Candidate George W. Bush ran against Al Gore, it is argued that this particular election was dishonest. Several occurrences support the claim as to why this election was not legitimate. The most significant incident occurred in Palm Beach, Florida, where a significant amount of local senior citizens claimed that they had voted for the wrong candidate due to the butterfly ballot. Seeing that the butterfly ballot confused many senior residents, it cost Al Gore votes. Gore had 2,907,351 votes while Bush had 2,909,135 votes, which is why the senior residents’ claim called for a statewide recount for Florida. Although, 18 out of the 67 counties failed to recount the ballots, the recount still benefited Gore by now being