The candidates of the 2000 election were Albert Gore and George W. Bush. Gore, the democratic nominee, had served as vice president under Bill Clinton. Bush, the republican nominee, was previously the governor of Texas. Bush chose former secretary of defense Dick Cheney to be his vice president while Gore chose Senator Jon Lieberman to be his vice president. There was also a third party candidate from the Green party named Ralph Nader. Nader and the party he belonged to did not receive the five percent of the popular vote needed to grant the party national funding. The main topics of interest in the nation at the time include the failing economy, social security, and presidential ethics. Both Bush and Gore promised tax breaks for the nation and proposed plans to reduce national debt.
What makes this election special is the controversial results. The election of 2000 was one of five elections in US history in which the winner of the popular vote did not win the election. The votes from the electoral college were also extremely close, with Bush receiving just one more vote than needed to win the majority. The election was so close that there was a mandatory recount in Florida. Following the mandatory recount, Gore requested another recount in four Florida counties. This led to several cases which eventually reached the supreme court. Seven of the nine justices believed that the different systems of voting violated the Equal Protection Clause. However, only four justices believed that a fair recount could be completed by the deadline for the decision. This led to the ruling that the recount must be halted and Bush be given the presidency.
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http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-does-the-electoral-college-work
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2000/00-949
http://www.270towin.com/2000_Election/
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2008/12/22/us/22bar-600.jpg
This is a really interesting post and your photo really accompanies it well. That is, you can so both people supporting Gore and people supporting Bush within that one image. You mentioned that Presidential ethics was one of the most important issues, and one can see why this was true, after Bill Clinton's issues with affairs throughout his presidency. Moreover, on the issue of ethics, do you think it was right that the Supreme Court made that decision? It still, to this day, is one of the most prominent arguments that those against the electoral college use.
ReplyDeleteJavin's question is important -- the Supreme Court decision may have changed the future of the world for the next 8 years at that time. After the automatic machine recount, Bush's lead in Florida had narrowed from 1,800 votes to 327 votes. The four counties Gore chose to do a manual recount could have had significant impacts on those 327 votes, as all four counties had reports a voting machine malfunction. The split 5-4 decision was extremely controversial, and I think the more specific question is: was the Supreme Court's use of the 14th Amendment to say that Florida could not provide more protection for certain votes just?
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