Back essay by Carl Pridemore
OPINION OR FACT? The Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President. Where should we start? Normally I do not like to quote Wikipedia but this entry is very accurate and, in my opinion, void of any political slant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_v._Gore
The Presidential election in question took
place November 7, 2000. Under the Electoral
College system each state conducts its own popular election
for President and Vice President. However, the voters are actually
voting for a slate of "electors", each of whom pledged to vote for a
particular candidate for each office, in the Electoral College. Article
II, § 1, cl. 2 of the U.S. Constitution provides that each
state legislature decides how electors are chosen. Early in U.S.
history, most state legislatures directly
appointed the slate of electors for each of their respective
states. Today, state legislatures have enacted laws to provide for
the selection of electors by popular vote within each state. While
laws vary, most states, including Florida, award all electoral votes
to the candidate for either office who receives a plurality
of the state's popular vote. Any candidate who then receives an
absolute majority of all electoral votes nationally (270 since 1963)
wins the Presidential or Vice Presidential election. On November 8,
2000, the Florida Division of Elections reported that Bush won with
48.8%
of the vote, a margin of victory of 1,784 votes. [1]
The margin of victory was less than 0.5% of the votes cast, so a
statutorily-mandated[2]
automatic machine recount occurred. On November 10, with the machine
recount finished in all but one county, Bush's margin of victory had
decreased to 327.[3]
Florida's election laws[4]
allow a candidate to request a county to conduct a manual recount,
and Gore requested manual recounts in four Florida counties:
Volusia,
Palm
Beach, Broward
and Miami-Dade,
which happen to be counties that traditionally vote Democratic and
would be expected to garner more votes for Gore. Gore did not,
however, request any recounts in counties that traditionally vote
Republican. The four counties granted the request and began manual
recounts.
