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If Trump asks the Supreme Court to resolve the vote-counting dispute with Biden, it would be the second time in the history of the United States court that the presidency has decided.
On November 7, 2000, the day of the US Presidential Election, polls showed that Republican candidate George W. Bush, Governor of Texas, ahead of Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore, with a slight difference .
George W. Bush (left) and Al Gore during the 2000 debate. Photo: NBC.
When the votes were counted that night, the two competed fiercely, with some states reporting very tight results. In the end, the end result was determined by 25 Florida electoral votes. The governor of Florida is Jeb Bush, brother of candidate George W. Bush.
Initially, many media outlets “named” Gore as the winner in Florida, but later withdrew, judging that the race in this state is still too intense.
A few hours later, they determined that Bush won the victory in Florida, which meant that he was elected president. Gore called Bush to admit defeat. But the media once again withdrew the statement, prompting Gore to call Bush to withdraw his loss.
The results of the vote count in Florida are in a state of ambiguity. The two candidates were separated by less than 0.5%, prompting the state to automatically review all votes cast in a hole punch next to the candidate’s name. Some abnormalities were revealed during this count.
On November 9, 2000, Gore called for a manual recount of votes in four counties with strong pro-Democratic traditions, including Palm Beach. Bush protested, but was rejected by a federal judge.
The legal war between the two parties developed rapidly. A number of attorneys from both sides flocked to Florida. The spotlight is that the ballot punch used in Palm Beach County gives too high a margin of error for such a narrow vote.
The accountants rejected thousands of ballots due to mechanical error or because they were not fully perforated, with a small piece of paper still attached to the ballot.
Meanwhile, Bush aides accused Democrats of trying to eliminate 25,000 mail-in votes from two Republican counties.
On November 26, 2000, the state of Florida determined Bush the winner with a difference of 537 votes. Gore objected to the results, arguing that thousands of votes were not counted. On December 8, the Florida Supreme Court agreed with Gore and ordered a manual verification of 45,000 votes that were rejected by the accountant.
On 12/12/2000, the United States Supreme Court intervened for the first time in a presidential election, five weeks after it took place. In a landmark ruling, they ordered Florida to stop counting votes, arguing that the constitution was violated by counties using different counting standards.
The court decision closed the door of victory for Gore. The end result was recognized as Bush won Florida by a difference of 537 votes. Gore admitted defeat and said he did not want the country to continue to fall into partisan struggle.
On December 18, 2000, Bush was elected by the Electoral College as the 43rd president of the United States with 271 electoral votes, although Gore obtained more popular votes. Bush was also reelected four years later.
Long and controversial elections in the history of the United States. Video: Washington Post.
Phuong Vu (According to the AFP)
