Sabrina Kilian wrote:
> Clarence1898 wrote:
>> Without Florida's electoral votes, neither candidate had a majority.  So whoever
>> won Florida's popular vote won their electoral vote and thus the election.
>> Since the vote count was so  close in Florida, the big fuss was over the recount
>> of ballots.  Some ballots were excluded because it wasn't clear which candidate
>> it was for.
>>
> The other complaint was that G. W. Bush's brother, Jeb, had appointed
> the people responsible for counting the votes in Florida, if I recall
> correctly.

Florida law expressly established a deadline of 14 November for that 
election cycle's recounts, and the Florida Secretary of State (a 
Republican appointee) stood by this.

Al Gore (who is my late father's fourth cousin) took her to court, 
challenging this, and got the Florida State Supreme Court (which was 
mostly Democratic appointees at the time) to rule an extension to the 
recount deadline.  The United States Supreme Court vacated that ruling, 
and the 14 November deadline stood.

On 26 November the state canvassing board formally validated the vote 
total (which gave Bush a 537 vote lead); this was vindicated by the 
first state court to hear the case, but the Florida State Supreme Court 
overruled this, and directed that 70,000 votes, which were ballots 
rejected by the vote-counting machinery, be recounted.  The US Supreme 
Court ruled that the Florida State Supreme Court's ruling was 
unconstitutional, and therefore let stand the existing vote totals.

Even if the US Supremes had not gone his way on the recounting, Bush did 
have one final chance.  The US Constitution says that the electors for 
the Electoral College are chosen in a manner to be determined by the 
state legislature.  The Florida State legislature was heavily Republican 
at the time, and was getting ready to pass legislation giving the vote 
to Bush.  This would have raised a ruckus, but it would have been 
perfectly legal.

Regards,
John

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