How the Supreme Court Decided the 2000 Election | Bush v. Gore

In episode 39 of Supreme Court Briefs, it's the most controversial Presidential election in American history (except maybe the Election of 1860 or Election of 1824), mainly because the Supreme Court ultimately decides its outcome.

Special thanks to the AP Archives for footage for this video.

Produced by Matt Beat. All images and video used under fair use, original content, or found in the public domain. Music by Electric Needle Room (Matt Beat).

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Other sources used:

Sound effect credits:
Mike Koenig

Photo credits:
Michael Rivera
Elvert Barnes

In one of the closest presidential elections in American history, George W. Bush held a narrow lead over Al Gore. Out of nearly 6 million ballots in Florida, only 1784 votes separated the two. Under Florida law, and since the United States has a winner takes all system, the candidate with the most votes in the state got all of its electoral votes. Because it was so freaking close, state law said there had to be a machine vote recount. After the recount, it was even closer! Now, Bush’s lead was just 327.

No worries. Florida law also allowed Gore the option of a manual vote recount, meaning counting them by hand, in whatever counties Gore wanted. He was like, “Uh, yeah,” and picked four counties: Broward, Miami-Dade, Volusia, and Palm Beach. The problem, though, was that Gore was running out of time. Florida law also said (man Florida law says a lot) the state’s election results have to be certified within seven days of the election. Since election day was November 7, that meant the deadline was November 14th. Well three of those four counties didn’t get er done before the deadline. Despite those counties trying to get an extension, the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, went ahead and announced she would be certifying the votes, ending all the recounts.

Al Gore was like nuh-uh. He and Palm Beach County tried to get an injunction against Secretary Harris to prevent her from certifying the votes until those three counties got their recounts done. The Florida Supreme Court said “sure,” and granted the injunction on November 17. On November 21, it ruled that Secretary Harris had to let those counties finish recounting with a new deadline of November 26th. But Miami-Dade county was like, “nah man, that’s not enough time,” and it gave up counting! Gore said “hey hey hey Miami-Dade, you must count,” and tried to get another court order to force them but that one failed. On November 26, Harris certified the election, giving Bush what was now just a 537-vote victory.

You know what? Gore sued Harris, arguing the certified results were invalid because the recount process wasn’t finished yet. The Leon County Circuit dismissed his lawsuit, so Gore appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, which, on December 8, ruled in favor of Gore. They demanded that all votes not counted by voting machines had to be manually recounted if they hadn’t been already.

Well George W. Bush stepped in and said “hey hey hey hey...now wait just a minute” and appealed this decision to the United States Supreme Court. And holy crap, THE VERY NEXT DAY the Supreme Court reviewed the case. Why did the Supreme Court respond quicker than it ever does? Well, this was obviously important. Soon, the deadline for electors to formally submit their choice would be there, and soon after the new President would have to be inaugurated. Things needed to move along. The Court heard oral arguments on December 11th.

Through all of this, protesters lined the streets outside. Rarely throughout American history did the country seem so divided. Things were tense, to say the least. So what was the Court really looking at in this case? Well, the issue now was whether or not the Florida Supreme Court violated Article II Section 1 Clause 2 of the Constitution, specifically the part that says:

“Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors…”

So could the Florida Supreme Court really step in on this? Also, Bush argued that the recounts went against the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

#supremecourtbriefs #scotus #apush

[iammrbeat]

My book about everything you need to know about the Supreme Court is now available!

[cde.zhaletscou]

Bush v. Gore should have been *clearly* been handled by a recount. In other countries, this would have been impetus for greater protections for poll workers and the independent electoral commission to oversee these kinds of processes

[kingbibihabibi]

Think it's also important to note that Secretary of State Katherine Harris was in charge of Florida's elections at the same time as she was the co-chair of the Bush campaign in the state. Oh, and the governor of Florida was Jeb Bush, the candidate's brother.

[johnnyzhang]

"Try to put aside your political affiliation and really think about this one..."
What an optimist in 2018.

[devilgamerdg]

3:21 “The country never seemed so divided”

2020 election: hold my beer

[lukedetering]

6:03 Yes. With social media being so common in 2016, the reaction would be like 2000 on a greater scale

[excelisfun]

Thank you very much, Mr. Beat - this is another REALLY awesome video. Thanks for the history and knowledge : )

[CynicalHistorian]

I like the sound effect for quotes. Good idea. I think i might do the same. I've been doing a deeper voice for quotes, and people have been interpreting it as sarcasm, so this is better

[Mirkuzz]

I’m sure that some one mentioned it below, but the final ruling was 5 to 4 and Souter & Breyer were on Gore’s side.

[Htxfleon]

Mr.Beat, you’re way better than my history teacher.

[StefanMilo]

Man I love this series. US elections are so convoluted. Didn't realize it was such a white wash 7-2. We'd potentially be living in a different world had that gone the other way.

[SiVlog]

What a controversial decision, yes it could have gone on forever, but it did highlight the lack of consistency in the standard of voting at the time.

Imagine if the court had intervened in either 1876 or 2016. It would have been just as crazy

[ZackN]

It's been quite a while since I read the full decision from the Supreme Court on this, but I think there are a couple errors in your summary. As I recall, the decision that the Florida Supreme Court's (let's call 'em SCOFL) specific decision violated the equal protection clause came down to 7-2. But that wasn't necessarily the consequential decision since it didn't rule out the possibility for a different remedy (such as a statewide recount or setting a single standard for the counties to do the recount rather than letting the counties do their own thing). The consequential decision--and the one that is much more controversial--was the 5-4 decision (where Souter and Breyer joined Ginsburg and Stevens in the dissent) that stated that the recounts must stop simply because they didn't believe such a process could be concluded by the electoral college deadline.

It's pretty difficult to put aside partisan biases (though I was just a dumb high school student at the time of the decision) in a case that ultimately decided the result of the 2000 election. But I do think the court got this one wrong because deadlines stipulated in state and federal laws are--in my opinion--of less consequence than citizen's rights to have their votes counted. The court essentially ruled that meeting election certification deadlines is more important than ensuring the state is certifying the correct victor.

Ultimately, the 2000 Florida results were really just a tie within any counting methodology's margin of error. But it would have been nice if SCOTUS had agree with the spirit of SCOFL's ruling that counting right is more important than counting quickly.

[michaeldones]

Youtube recommended this to me. How smart in this unprecedented times.

[Debre.]

"The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy."
~Donald Trump, 2012~

[alexmorris]

I've recommend your channel to my high school history teacher. Hope he uses it in class!

[nebulan]

I was in a high school government class that year. We were to track the election and report on it up until election day... except the election didn't end on election day and we had to keep reporting... it was the project that wouldn't end!

[christianweibrecht]

the winner take all system making voting in presidential elections near pointless if you don't live in a swing state

[lindsaymanning]

Awesome! I finally get to see my favorite supreme court case on "Supreme Court Briefs." The main reasons why it is my favorite is because 1) Bush V. Gore was decided pretty fast. (I understand why many cases take a long time but some of them take quite a few years.) 2) I knew who both the people were before I knew about the Supreme Court Case since one of them were the former vice president and the other person was the first president I can remember. 3) This supreme court case is pretty much all about Presidential Elections which was the thing that helped me discover this channel a couple years ago and I have watched all the election videos and many more Mr. Beat. has made since. PS I love how you made Al Gores and George W. Bushs faces go around in circles.😂

[joshspeed]

Who's here in 2020 thinking history is repeating itself?