BUSH V. GORE

Election Legal Battle: Bush v. Gore

Election Legal Battle: Bush v. Gore

Introduction

The presidential election held in 2000 was among the longest general election campaigns in U.S. history, and it culminated in the longest election "night" (36 days) in modern history. Only the presidential election of 1876 comes close to the 2000 election in terms of postelection drama. In the 2000 election, Democratic vice president Albert Gore had been the presumptive nominee of his party for nearly eight years. Although he faced a challenge from former senator Bill Bradley, Gore triumphed in early primaries and had the nomination wrapped up in March. The Republican candidate was not nearly so certain. The Republican Party has a tradition of giving an open nomination (i.e., no incumbent running) to whomever has been seeking it the longest, Robert Dole in 1996, George H. W. Bush in 1988, Ronald Reagan in 1980, Richard Nixon in 1968, and by that paradigm the 2000 nomination belonged to either former congressman and cabinet secretary Jack Kemp or former vice president J. Danforth Quayle. But it was clear fairly early in the long prenomination period that neither of their efforts had much traction. (Ackerman, 2002)

Instead, there was a burning desire for revenge against Gore and President William J. Clinton in many Republican circles for their having ousted Bush in 1992. The best revenge, many opined, was to elect Bush's son, George W. Bush. By mid-1999, Bush was the frontrunner (albeit with huge numbers of Republicans undecided). Bush's only serious competition was Senator John McCain of Arizona. But this race, too, was ended in March, and since it is usually June before both nominees are known (sometimes not until late August), this set up the longest general election campaign in history.

Discussion

The 2000 presidential election of was one of the most contested and strange elections in American history. On election night the results were so close that the winner could not be determined. At the end of the evening, the election hinged on the results of the vote in the state of Florida. At first, the networks awarded the state to Democrat Al Gore, only moments later to withdraw the announcement, followed by giving the state to Republican George W. Bush, followed later by an announcement that the vote was too close to call. (Bugliosi, 2001)

On November 26, 2000, after extended legal manoeuvring by attorneys for both Texas governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore and nearly three weeks after voters went to the polls to choose the next president, Florida finally certified its election results, declaring Bush the winner. The following day, as permitted by Florida law, Gore filed a complaint contesting the results. His attorneys claimed that because a number of illegal votes were counted, while other legal votes were not, Bush's razor-thin margin of victory might well hinge on recounting the ballots in several Florida counties.(Dershowitz, 2001)

In dispute were the contested ballots in several areas of the ...