Can you tell me the sequence of events in the contested Florida Election?

Question

As in what the Florida Supreme Court did and

What the United States Supreme Court did.

They went back several times and there were many cases in other courts as well.

I am a bit confussed about why the Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide recount so near the drop dead date when the Presidential Electors had to be chosen.

What was the main reason given for this?

This is for a term paper.

Answer 1

Let's see.

First they counted, then they recounted, then Gore insisted they count again, but only here or there. Then they stopped counting so he sued to make them start counting again. Then they stopped counting again so he sued to make them start counting yet again. Despite coming up with new and inventive ways to count votes for Gore, like hanging chads, pregnant chads, dimpled chads, etc., they still couldn't make the count come out right.

Then the Supreme Court said knock it off.

Actually, there was a very good and lengthy series of articles written on CNN, Time or Newsweek a few months later, that laid out exactly what happened, why and how. I did a quick search but couldn't find it. Sorry. Maybe you'll have better luck.

Answer 2

Basically, there was an issue with how ballots were being counted, and whether all ballots were being counted. This issur arose immediately after the election, but took about a month to make its way through the lower courts.

The case wound up at the Florida Supreme Court on December 8th, which ordered a recount by hand of all the ballots. By Florida statute, the electors had to be chosen by December 12th.

The case was accepted by the US Supreme Court for review, which determined that the Florida Supreme Court had failed to set proper standards for HOW the ballots should be recounted by hand, and as a result there was a chance that ballots in different precincts would be counted differently. So the US Supreme Court stopped the recount.

You can read the case yourself, which sets forth more details on what happened, and why the ruling came down as it did.

Answer 3

From the bargaining.... The *Democratic* supervisor of elections designed the ballot.... the result was approved by *both* democratic and Republican leaders in that district... sample ballots were mailed out to *all* voters. During the election some voters (to stupid to vote IMHO) allegedly complained that the ballot was to confusing and that they voted for the wrong candidate by mistake. A recount was ordered... The people in charge of the recount decided to take 3 days off during the Thanks Giving Holiday .... They were unable to complete the recount in the *legally* allotted time. The disallowed recount was challenged in court. The FL Supreme Court ruled (counter to FL law)that a second recount could go forward.. The US Supreme Court basically over ruled the FL Court and the election went to George Bush.
As an aside.... *All* the recounts. The ones ordered by the Courts and subsequent independent recounts *STILL* showed that George Bush won that election
A Second aside.... The Democrats were never *really* interested in having "every vote count" as they went to court to get the ballots from the troupes overseas thrown out. (because of logistics of the mail system, they had arrived late).