This is one of the most interesting and controversial when it comes to American Politics in recent times. There was a repeat or fear of a repeat of a similar situation in 2020 as well. American Presidential Election is the most sought-after result out of all elections in the world. It happens every four years and is very lively to follow. Presidential elections even though happen in November, the preparations start close a year before.
Here is the article of the month. Here is the News capsule for the month of May.
In 2000, the start of a new century saw one of the biggest political crises in the USA which perhaps has changed the world forever. The outcome of 2000 was crucial for the world. 1991 saw the collapse of the USSR ending the Cold War. Close to a decade, the US enjoyed an unchallenged unipolar movement. The new country Russian Federation was extremely weak and was facing an internal crisis in regions like Chechnya. The 2000 election was fought between then-the Governor of Texas, George W Bush from the Republican Party and then Vice President Al Gore.
For the longest period of time, Bush was the favourite to win the elections as per various opinion polls. As the dates became closer, the fight got tighter. The New York Times just hours before the elections, that this will be one of the closest elections ever, with the outcome swaying either side. Both candidates were equally hopeful of a victory.
On November 7, 2000, America went to the polls. America was stronger than ever with a robust economy and victory over the cold war. Hence, Democratic party candidate Al Gore appeared fairly strong. George Bush was very popular as the Governor of Texas and his brother Jeb Bush was the governor of Florida. His father George H W Bush was the President of the USA from 1989-93. Bush chose famous International Policymaker Dick Cheyney to be his running mate.
At 7 PM ET, polls closed on the East Coast which allowed TV News channels to announce projections. The election was tight than expected. The entire situation came down to the state of Florida. Al Gore took an early lead in the state and several news channels called Florida in favour of Al Gore. Within minutes the picture changed, by 10 PM, Bush started to edge closer. The news channels moved Florida from Gore to "Too Close to Call". This was due to a change in reportage on the ground. Al Gore conceded his defeat to Bush. Even a lot of world leaders including UK PM Tony Blair had called Al Gore to congratulate his victory.
Florida
By odd hours, Florida was tight in the picture. Democratic stronghold counties like Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Broward are still counting. Soon, Gore took the fight closer, forcing channels that called Florida in favour of Bush to retract the same. Al Gore later withdrew his concession and decides to take the fight legally. In Florida, as the Bush lead shrunk to over 300 votes, the state went into a manual recount as per the state law. Also, Al Gore took the opportunity to take the matter to the Florida government as the margin was less than 1%. With the incoming military ballots, Bush's lead was pushed to 930 votes. Gore requested for the recount of votes in four counties which were Democratic strongholds- Volusia, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Broward By now election tally was 249 for Gore and 246 with Bush and Florida undecided. Who wins Florida would decide who will be the President.
Florida Supreme Court
The Secretary of State of Florida demanded that counties need time till November 14th to recount and tabulate the results while Gore took the issue to the court and asked for an extension till the 26th. Only two counties made it on time, while one county was late by two hours and the last one was unable to complete it. By 26th November, at last Bush's tally reached close to a lead of 500 votes and the state certified its votes in favour of George Bush. Unsatisfied Al Gore challenged the same asking to complete the recount and even count the 70,000 questionable ballots where certain counties had punching ballots, making it very hard to count them.
Role of SCOTUS
Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000) was phenomenal in changing the history of American elections even today. After the Florida court ordered the recount, Bush approached the highest court in America to overturn the verdict. On December 12th, SC (in 7-2) held that request for a special recount as claiming that recount of only certain ballots violated the 14th amendment. After 19 days, despite Gore's demand for more extension, Supreme Court 5-4 voted to stop the count that day and upheld the previous results. Moreover, it asked the Florida SC to decide the same which it didn't accept at all.
Election Outcome
Following this Bush had a lead of over 537 votes in the state of Florida which gave 25 electoral college votes of the state to him. Hence Bush became the 43rd President of the United States with 271-266. Al Gore lost the election despite winning 48.4% popular votes whereas Bush won only 47.9%. Nader of the Green party scored 2.7% votes without winning any electoral votes. Al Gore conceded his fight and also accepted the results finally.
Controversies
In Palm Beach County, over 29,000 ballots were found discarded due to improper punching. While the entire court fight was happening between the candidates, the supporters of both sides were Bush became the first President after the longest period of time (112 years) to lose the popular vote but win the electoral vote. Even when Gore leads by 543,000 votes across the country, the 537 votes of Florida held the verdict on a cliffhanger. The ballot papers in Florida especially in counties that had punching of papers had a lot of invalid votes as per the machines. There are also allegations that the placement of the names of the candidates was also quite confusing to a lot of people. Should it be 291-246 is a major question raised by a lot of Gore supporters. Nader the Green party member who won close to 2.7% votes was blamed by Gore supporters for the loss. Would there have been another recount? What would have happened then?
Impact
Even today as we speak, the American Presidential election continues to face a big flak from everyone. A lot of people felt ignored by the system when the recount was stopped. In 2016, the winning candidate again won the election without winning the popular vote. In 2020. Trump raised a lot of issues against the election system and challenged the election multiple times. Unlike Al Gore, he never conceded his election despite losing from all fronts. Domestically, the US political map started to crystallise from this election. The idea of today's political map (red, blue and purple) can be attributed to the 2000 election. The polarisation of Politics we see today can be attributed to this as well. Since this incident, many people feel disenfranchised and remain divided. For the longest period of time, pollsters in the USA are struggling to put forward a clear picture whether it be opinion or exit polls. Do they hold the same credibility as before is doubtful.
From the international front, a lot of experts and people were expecting a continuation of policy from the USA, which meant an affirmative for Al Gore. The victory of Bush was a shocker to many. In the Middle East, there was relative peace during the time of the Clinton Presidency. Bush's victory meant the Middle East scratching its past wounds of Operation Dessert Fox and various US interventions under the Bush Sr administration. Both Candidates had a contradictory worldviews. Bush Jr was more of an isolationist while Gore was an Internationalist who supported Humanitarian intervention in Eastern Europe and accelerated the dominance of the US throughout the globe. Al Gore was also very much vocal on the climate change and environmental front which he would have advanced as the President. Hence the international scene was going to be a mixed bag.
2001, saw 9/11 a changing moment in US foreign policy and one of the biggest terrorist attacks in the world. From a mild isolationist, Bush led Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and later Operation Iraqi Freedom. Both of these campaigns even though paid off domestically, it created a widespread impact in the region of the Middle East and across the world even today. The 2000s also saw both sides of Globalisation. The positives include- Interdependence, Trade, estd. of WTO, the Rise of China, technological advancement, etc. while on the negatives we have the 2008 Financial crisis, Terrorism, Climate Change etc. There is a lot of debate on whether actually, Al Gore would have attacked either the Taliban or Iraq.
Conclusion
It is very wrong for us to judge the events of the past. Although 2000, isn't so long ago to be included in history books and we are still facing the brunt of the same. In the globalised age, each election does have its own impact. The 2000s undoubtedly was a very challenging yet promising decade for America. Maybe if today Al Gore would have been asked about this, mostly he would be thankful that he wasn't the President. Hence the "What if " history will indeed try to see everything through a different lens.
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