Environment & Energy

Because the vote was so very close, a legally mandated machine recount of the entire state was called for. Bush’s lead was cut. As it turned out, some counties did not perform the machine recount, but the Gore team did not protest this.

The Gore team requested manual recounts in 4 large, traditionally Democratic counties, believing that the “undervotes” would include enough additional Gore votes to carry the day. (“Undervotes” were ballots where no vote for president was recognized by the machine. “Overvotes” apparently had votes for 2 or more presidential candidates.) Making matters worse, the four counties used different standards for their manual recounts! Palm Beach County even changed their own standards multiple times!

Now, speaking as a Gore supporter (I even preferred Gore over Clinton in their primary) that seems kinda hinky, right? (You’re looking for additional votes in a few counties you think will be favorable to you, not, for example, in all counties where the vote was close, or seemed problematic.)

Further, remember phrases like “hanging chad” & “pregnant chad?” Those applied to punchcard ballots. There were also optical scan ballots to consider! (How much of a mark is a mark? What if it was clear that a voter had attempted to change their vote? (Can evidence of intent be used to count an otherwise invalid ballot?) In a large number of cases, people successfully marked their ballot for a candidate, and (to reinforce their vote) wrote his name in the write-in field as well. (Scoring an “overvote” or a “spoiled ballot." ) Counties had different standards for handling these as well! Later analysis showed that if these ballots were counted, using the clear intent of the voter, Gore would have gotten the great majority of them.

After several legal challenges, the Florida State Supreme Court eventually ordered that a statewide manual recount needed to be performed. The Bush team appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. (Since Bush was ahead at that point, they had nothing to gain in any recount.) SCOTUS accepted the appeal, and put a stay on the recounts already in progress.

SCOTUS swiftly decided that under the “Equal Protection Clause” of the 14th amendment, everyone’s vote should be counted the same way. A statewide recount, using a uniform standard set of criteria was the appropriate response. — Seems reasonable, right?


Now, here’s the problem: SCOTUS also ruled that there was insufficient time for Florida to determine a uniform standard and perform a manual recount of the entire state. Since there wasn’t time to perform a recount, the results would remain as they were (effectively making Bush the winner.)


Could Gore have stopped Climate Change in its tracks if he’d been named President in 2001? I honestly don’t think so. — Perhaps he could have slowed it down.
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-heat-waves