Essay on Recounting Votes in the US Presidential Election of 2000

• Published in: International journal for quality in health care 2001-07, Vol.13 (2), p.186-193
• Main Author: Barton, Allen H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bush, George W; Candidates; Election results; Elections; Gore, Albert Jr; Methodology (Data Collection); Presidential elections; Public Opinion Research; Research Responses; Sampling; Surveys; Voter behavior; Voting Behavior
• ISSN: 0954-2892; 1353-4505; 1471-6909; 1464-3677
• DOI: 10.1093/ijpor/13.2.186

On November 7, 2000, just over half the US electorate voted for one or another of the candidates for President of the United States. Vice President Albert Gore (Democrat) got over half a million more votes than his Republican opponent Governor George W. Bush, a lead of one half of one percent of the 100 million votes cast. The Constitution of the United States provides that each state has ‘electors’ equal in number to its number of Senators (two) and Representatives (proportional to population). Two states allocate their electors roughly according to the division of the popular vote; the remaining 48 plus the District of Columbia have a winner‐take‐all system. Under this constitutional system the legal victory came down to who won Florida's 25 electoral votes—if Bush could get them he would have a one‐vote majority in the Electoral College despite his loss of the popular vote. Needless to say, in such a close election neither side could claim a popular mandate for his program and ideology, but the winner has important powers of appointment (perhaps as many as four Supreme Court Justices over the next four years), administration, and the ability to lay out the national agenda for the next four years, so the Florida outcome mattered a great deal to a great many people, and not only to Americans.