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Gore lost because of two acts performed prior to the election. The first was the voter registration purge conducted by a contractor from Texas. This purge removed many actual legal voters in Democrat leaning districts. The second was the butterfly ballot chosen by Palm Beach County. The Palm Beach Post’s “… review of discarded ballots found Gore lost 6,607 votes when voters marked more than one name on the county's "butterfly ballot." ... Gore's total gain -- with the overvotes -- might have been as much as 8,600 votes, the paper said." (CNN) Without even going into recount decisions this error made entirely without a partisan intention cost Gore the election. Unfortunately, there was not an effective remedy for this problem. We don’t do mulligans in the electoral process. The take away fact is that if all legal voters in Florida who participated in the 2000 election had had their vote accurately recorded and counted, Gore would have been the President of the United States. I do tire of snide comments about Gore; it would be tough to accept such a loss. Following the Supreme Court decision and his concession he has done so with grace.
To answer some of Carl and Rhamy's specific points. Yes, Rhamy I have read some of the decision. I have also listened to legal analysis by academic students of the Supreme Court. I was in the courtroom, as in I listened on NPR and C-Span.
