I recently ran across a thread which made an oblique reference to the 2000 election debacle in Florida. The poster more or less assumed that Gore won the state and was cheated out of it by the Republicans.
Now, my understanding from the recounts that were completed is that Bush did indeed win the state of Florida, but the only recount I can recall is the one done by the Miami Herald. I seem to remember some neutral research organization doing a retally that was taking several months, but I don’t recall the name of the organization. Was there ever a neutral recount that definitively stated which candidate should have been awarded the electoral votes for the state of Florida?
Please try to avoid turning this into a Great Debate.
The summary I had heard was that Bush would have won based on the re-count plan that Gore was pushing for. BUT Gore would have won based on how the new Florida laws are written. Since those laws weren’t passed until after the dabacle forced a change, Bush is (whether you like it or not) the winner based on the laws in force at the time of the election.
I believe the oblique reference you mention did not have to do with the recount, but teh Justice Departments suits against various counties in Florida. Or in a word, the suit validates teh argument that voters were illegally disinfranchised. I could be wrong.
If the limited-number-of-counties recount Gore had wanted was done, Bush would have won. If the recount of the full state that the Florida Supreme Court had wanted was done, Gore would have won. That’s without going into the widespread cancellation of black voters’ registrations in Jacksonville, or the strength of the Rich Elderly Jews for Buchanan movement in Palm Beach, or the acceptance of absentee ballots postmarked after the election date, etc.