2000 Presidential Election

In 2000 Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore ran for the presidency of the United States. Both men had to reach 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, and it came down to the last state (Florida). Bush had 246 electoral votes and Gore had 266. Florida would ultimately give the presidency to one of these men, giving 25 electoral votes to the winner. With the election coming down to one state there was lots of controversy surrounding the voting process. Each state had the power to decide how votes could be selected. In the state of Florida on the ballot, voters were supposed to puncture a hole in the ballot. Bush was ahead of gore by only a couple thousands to win Florida, Gore saw that he was about to lose the presidency and demanded a recount. The recount was underway and Gore was starting to catch up to Bush. Bush panicked and went to Congress and demanded that the recount is stopped. He claimed that it was a violation of the 14th amendment of the Equal Protection Clause. The supreme court later on ruled in favor of Bush and stopped the recount giving Bush the electoral votes in Florida and the Presidency. If the recount weren't stopped many believed that Gore would've won the presidency, he was only a couple of hundred votes behind and they had only gotten through half of the ballots.