who was attorney general of florida whengore ran against bush

Who was in charge of the Bush campaign in Florida?

Nov 06, 2020 · John G. Roberts Jr., then working as a Bush attorney, became chief justice of the United States of America. Amy Coney Barrett, then just out of law school and also working for Bush, just joined ...

What happened in the Bush v Florida case?

Oct 17, 2020 · Bob Butterworth: He was Florida Attorney General and Gore's Florida campaign chair. It was Butterworth who understood how close the vote totals were in Florida and persuaded Gore not to concede the...

What did the Florida Supreme Court decide in Bush v Gore?

Jan 17, 2008 · On November 26, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who doubled as state campaign cochair for Bush, certified voting results that gave Bush a …

How did Bush win the Florida election?

Oct 17, 2020 · CNN —. Judge Amy Coney Barrett, once confirmed, will be one of three current Supreme Court justices who assisted the legal team of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the Florida ballot-recount ...

Who was the plaintiff in the Bush vs Gore case?

Who ran against Bush?

Who did Bush beat in the 2004 general election?

Who ran against George Bush in 1988?

Who ran against George Bush in 2008?

Who did Barack Obama run against in 2004?

Who did John Kerry run against for president?

Which US state was a red state in 2004 US presidential election?

What is Bush v. Gore?

Bush v. Gore was a case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court in which that court reversed a Florida Supreme Court request for a selective manual rec...

What did the U.S. Supreme Court decide in Bush v. Gore?

On December 12, 2000, in a 7–2 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Florida Supreme Court’s decision that manual recounts of ballots shoul...

What was the outcome of Bush v. Gore?

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bush v. Gore terminated the recount process in Florida in the U.S. presidential election of 2000. With the elect...

When did the Florida Supreme Court issue its opinion in Bush v. Gore?

Gore, the Florida Supreme Court provided clarifications of its November 21 decision in Palm Beach County Canvassing Board v. Harris (Harris I), which the U.S. Supreme Court had requested on December 4 following arguments in the case of Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board. Because of the extraordinary nature and argued urgency of the case, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Bush v. Gore on December 12, 2000, a day after hearing oral argument.

What was the case of Bush v. Gore?

98 (2000), was a decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

What was the Supreme Court ruling in the Florida recount?

In a per curiam decision, the Court first ruled 7–2 (Justices Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting), strictly on equal protection grounds, that the recount be stopped. Specifically, the use of different standards of counting in different counties violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. (The case had also been argued on the basis of Article II jurisdictional grounds, which found favor with only Justices Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and William Rehnquist .) Second, the Court ruled 5–4 against the remedy, proposed by Justices Stephen Breyer and David Souter, of sending the case back to Florida to complete the recount using a uniform statewide standard before the scheduled December 18 meeting of Florida's electors in Tallahassee. The majority held that no alternative method could be established within the discretionary December 12 "safe harbor" deadline set by Title 3 of the United States Code (3 U.S.C.), § 5, which the Florida Supreme Court had stated that the Florida Legislature intended to meet. That deadline arrived two hours after the release of the Court's decision. The Court, stating that not meeting the "safe harbor" deadline would therefore violate the Florida Election Code, rejected an extension of the deadline.

Why did the Supreme Court not order recounts?

Part of the reason recounts could not be completed was the various stoppages ordered by the various branches and levels of the judiciary, most notably the Supreme Court. Opponents argued that it was improper for the Court (by the same five justices who joined the per curiam opinion) to grant a stay that preliminarily stopped the recounts based on Bush's likelihood of success on the merits and possible irreparable injury to Bush. Although stay orders normally do not include justification, Scalia concurred to express some brief reasoning to justify it, saying that one potential irreparable harm was that an invalid recount might undermine the legitimacy of Bush's election (presumably if, for example, it were to find that Gore should have won). Supporters of the stay, such as Charles Fried, contend that the validity of the stay was vindicated by the ultimate decision on the merits and that the only thing that the stay prevented was a recount "being done in an unconstitutional way."

Why was the Florida recount unconstitutional?

Furthermore, Gore argued that the consequence of ruling the Florida recount unconstitutional simply because it treated different voters differently would effectively render every state election unconstitutional and that each voting mechanism has a different rate of error in counting votes. Voters in a "punch-card" county have a greater chance of having their votes undercounted than voters in an "optical scanner" county. If Bush prevails, Gore argued, every state would have to have one statewide method of recording votes to be constitutional.

Why did Bush argue that recounts in Florida violated the Equal Protection Clause?

Bush argued that recounts in Florida violated the Equal Protection Clause because Florida did not have a statewide vote recount standard. Each county was on its own to determine whether a given ballot was an acceptable one. Two voters could have marked their ballots in an identical manner, but the ballot in one county would be counted while the ballot in a different county would be rejected, because of the conflicting manual recount standards.

What did Gore argue about the recount?

However, Gore did argue briefly that the appropriate remedy would not be to cancel all recounts, but rather would be to order a proper recount.

Who broke down in Florida gridlock?

It was two days after the 2000 election between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore broke down in Florida gridlock.

Who was the secretary of state of Florida in 2000?

Then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in 2000. (Pete Cosgrove/AP)

What year was the recount drama in Florida?

The 2000 recount drama in Florida featured a cast of characters and power players almost unparalleled in American politics.

What did Harris stress about waiting for results?

Harris has stressed the importance of patience while awaiting results.

Who was on the side of the Bush brothers?

Harris, who was clearly on the side of both Bush brothers, made several key decisions in favor of the Texas governor, including certifying the election votes — in his favor. Gore sued to force a recount but later lost.

Who was the Chief Justice of the United States of America?

And then there were the bit players who would later emerge on the big stage of public life. John G. Roberts Jr. , then working as a Bush attorney, became chief justice of the United States of America.

Who was the point man on the 2000 recount?

There was former secretary of state James Baker, Bush’s point man on the recount.

Who oversaw the Florida recount?

Katherine Harris: In 2000, as Florida secretary of state, she oversaw the state recounts. She invalidated Palm Beach County's final recount tally because it was submitted two hours after her deadline. Harris published a book about her experiences. The Republican served two terms in the U.S. House and lost a U.S. Senate bid in 2006. She's managing director of investment relations for Sarasota-based venture capital firm Seven Holdings and is involved in area philanthropies.

Who was the Florida governor from 1999 to 2007?

Jeb Bush: Florida governor from 1999 to 2007, including during the recount. Unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2016. Founder and CEO of the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

How many votes did Pat Buchanan get in 2000?

Pat Buchanan: The conservative commentator and the 2000 Reform Party candidate got only 445,00 votes nationwide and 17,484 in Florida. But some 3,400 of those Florida votes — some one in five — was in Palm Beach County.

When did people start calling into the Palm Beach Post?

That would be historic enough. But early on the morning of Nov. 7, 2000, people starting calling into The Palm Beach Post newsroom. They said they had just gotten back from voting and they'd been confused by the design of the ballot at the voting machine and might have voted for the wrong person.

Who won the 2000 Florida presidential election?

The 2000 presidential election, 20 years ago this month, made Florida, and Palm Beach County, the center of the universe. Here's the short version: George W. Bush won Florida, putting him over the top for the presidency in the Electoral College and in charge of some 280 million people, by what would end up being 537 votes.

Who was the point man in the Bush campaign?

Trump later fired Bolton, who then wrote a tell-all book. James A. Baker III: The former U.S. Secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush, he was the George W. Bush campaign's point man in Tallahassee. He took part in several diplomatic missions in the George W. Bush White House.

Who was the president of Florida in 2004?

The main players. George W. Bush: The former Texas governor was elected president after the Florida Supreme Court declared him the winner of Florida by just 537 votes. He was reelected in 2004. He is retired in the Dallas area, site of his presidential library.

Why did Bush appeal the recount?

Bush's team argued that the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection for all citizens disqualified a manual recount because Florida's counties had followed differing vote-counting procedures.

What counties did Gore demand a recount?

Intent. Later on November 9, Gore's team demanded a manual recount in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Volusia counties. News outlets carried images of Florida election officials staring at hanging, dimpled, and pregnant chads on Florida's punch-card ballots, trying to "discern the intent" of the voters. Bush's lawyers argued to block the recounts; several more attempts to stop, or protect, the recounts and ballot certifications also were filed. On November 24, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Bush's appeal of a Florida high court ruling that allowed hand recounts to proceed.

What did Thomas say about Bush v Gore?

He told them the weeks preceding the decision had been "exhausting" but that he believed the process showed "the strength of our system of government.".

What was the 5 justice majority in Bush v. Gore?

Thomas joined the unsigned opinion that said Florida had run out of time to recount disputed ballots without violating the constitutional guarantee of equal protection. The decision cemented the state's late November certification of a 537-vote margin for Bush over Gore (from nearly 6 million ballots cast) and gave Bush Florida's decisive electoral votes.

How many Bush v Gore alumni are on the Supreme Court?

Supreme Court is about to have 3 Bush v. Gore alumni sitting on the bench - CNNPolitics

What case did Barrett write?

Barrett wrote on the questionnaire she submitted to the Senate for her Supreme Court confirmation review, "One significant case on which I provided research and briefing assistance was Bush v. Gore ." She said the law firm where she was working at the time represented Bush and that she had gone down to Florida "for about a week at the outset of the litigation" when the dispute was in the Florida courts. She said she had not continued on the case after she returned to Washington.

Why did Ginsburg criticize the majority in her separate opinion?

The late Ginsburg criticized the majority in her separate opinion for abandoning its usual federalism and deference to state courts on state law. "Rarely has this Court rejected outright an interpretation of state law by a state high court," she said. As she closed her opinion, she highlighted the stakes for the country: "In sum, the Court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the Court's own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the Presidency of the United States."

Why did Thomas not ask questions at oral arguments?

It was at this session that Thomas happened to reveal for the first time a "personal reason" for his habit of not asking questions at oral arguments. Born in rural Pin Point, Georgia, Thomas said he spoke with a Geechee dialect and was self-conscious as a child: "I just started developing the habit of listening," he told the students.

Why did Roberts fly to Florida?

Roberts flew to Florida in November 2000 to assist Bush's legal team. He helped prepare the lawyer who presented Bush's case to the Florida state Supreme Court and offered advice throughout.

Who were the other candidates for the Bush and Gore election?

Potentially affecting the outcome were two other candidates: Ralph Nader, of the left-wing Green Party, and Pat Buchanan, of the right-wing Reform Party .

Who argued for the Gore campaign?

Oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court were held on Friday, December 1. Laurence Tribe argued for the Gore campaign. Theodore Olson argued for the Bush campaign. On Monday, December 4, the Court chose, in effect, to kick the ball down the road, when all nine justices agreed to vacate the Florida decision and ask the state supreme court to clarify its arguments.

What did the Bush camp do to stop hand recounts?

Legal actions went forward on many fronts; the chair of the Miami-Dade canvassing board referred to the proliferation of suits as “ musical courts .” The Bush camp sought to stop hand recounts, and lost, on constitutional grounds, in federal court. The Gore camp sought, in state court, to prevent certification of the results until hand counts in four counties were complete—and momentarily prevailed, in the Florida Supreme Court. Separately, the Gore camp won a ruling by a Florida judge, Jorge Labarga, that so-called dimpled chads could be considered by officials conducting recounts.

How many votes did the Bush recount reduce?

The mechanical recount reduced Bush’s margin to 327 votes.

How many counties did the recount in Florida take place?

The mechanical recount reduced Bush’s margin to 327 votes. Gore had the right to request a hand recount in each of Floria’s 67 counties—the request had to be made county by county—but he asked for a recount in just four: Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Volusia. All of them were populous and heavily Democratic. They were also counties where problems with voting had been concentrated. Bush’s post-election effort in Florida was led by the former secretary of state James A. Baker. Gore’s effort was led by the former secretary of state Warren Christopher.

What did the Bush camp do in Florida?

Legal actions went forward on many fronts; the chair of the Miami-Dade canvassing board referred to the proliferation of suits as “ musical courts .” The Bush camp sought to stop hand recounts, and lost, on constitutional grounds, in federal court. The Gore camp sought, in state court, to prevent certification of the results until hand counts in four counties were complete—and momentarily prevailed, in the Florida Supreme Court. Separately, the Gore camp won a ruling by a Florida judge, Jorge Labarga, that so-called dimpled chads could be considered by officials conducting recounts.

What did Harris argue about the recounts?

Harris argued that challenges would be better afterward, statewide, in the “contest” period. Pressing for certification, Harris sought speedy completion of recounts, or an end to them.

Who was the Florida Secretary of State who backed Bush?

Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris 's certification of the election results was thus upheld, allowing Florida's electoral votes to be cast for Bush, making him president-elect.

Who is the Florida Attorney General?

Florida Attorney General Robert Butterworth in his advisory opinion to county canvassing boards wrote:

What was the controversy surrounding the Florida recount?

From the beginning of the controversy, politicians, litigants and the press focused exclusively on the undervotes, in particular incompletely punched chads. Undervotes (ballots that did not register any vote when counted by machine) were the subject of much media coverage, most of the lawsuits and the Florida Supreme Court ruling. After the election, recounts conducted by various United States news media organizations continued to focus on undervotes. Based on the review of these ballots, their results indicated that Bush would have won if certain recounting methods had been used (including the one favored by Gore at the time of the Supreme Court decision), but that Gore might have won under other standards and scenarios. The post-controversy recounts revealed that, "if a manual recount had been limited to undervotes, it would have produced an inaccurate picture of the electorate's position."

What was the goal of the Florida recount?

The project's goal was to determine the reliability and accuracy of the systems used in the voting process, including how different systems correlated with voter mistakes . The total number of undervotes and overvotes in Florida amounted to 3% of all votes cast in the state. The review's findings were reported in the media during the week after November 12, 2001, by the organizations that funded the recount: Associated Press, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, St. Petersburg Times, The Palm Beach Post and Tribune Publishing, which included the Los Angeles Times, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel and Chicago Tribune.

What was the recount in Florida?

The Florida election recount of 2000 was a period of vote recounting in Florida that occurred during the weeks after Election Day in the 2000 United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The Florida vote was ultimately settled in Bush's favor by a margin of 537 votes when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Bush v. Gore, stopped a recount that had been initiated upon a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court .

What did Mark Herron do to challenge overseas ballots?

The Herron memo gave postmark and "point of origin" criteria that Herron maintained could be used to challenge overseas ballots. It was in line with a letter sent out by Harris stating that if a postmark was not present on an overseas ballot, it had to be thrown out. Meanwhile, Republicans relied on their own 52-page manual for the same purpose. But on November 19, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Senator Joseph I. Lieberman appeared on Meet the Press and said that election officials should give the "benefit of the doubt" to military voters rather than disqualifying any overseas ballots that lacked required postmarks or witness signatures. Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Gore supporter, later told the counties to reconsider those ballots without a postmark. Before that, the Democrats had pursued a strategy of persuading counties to strictly enforce postmark requirements by disqualifying illegal ballots from overseas, which were predominantly for Bush. In contrast, Republicans pursued a strategy of disqualifying overseas ballots in counties that favored Gore and pressuring elections officials to include flawed overseas ballots in Bush counties.

How many counties in Florida have a recount?

Florida Supreme Court order as being implemented: accepts completed recounts in eight counties and certified counts from four counties that refused to recount; applies the above "county custom standard" to remaining Miami-Dade and other 55 counties

Who was the attorney general of Florida during the recount?

The Gore recount bid triggered an exchange of legal opinions between Katherine Harris, Florida’s Republican secretary of state, and Florida attorney general Robert A. Butterworth, a Democrat, over the meaning of a state law requiring manual recounts once a preliminary survey of selected precincts shows "an error in vote tabulation" sufficient to change the results of the election. Harris concluded that the term applied only to an error in hardware or software that produced erroneous vote totals, whereas Butterworth maintained that the term included situations where voter intent could be discerned despite the failure to follow voting instructions. That argument would produce prickly exchanges between U.S. Supreme Court justices even in the Court’s final decision.

Who was the lead lawyer in the Gore operation?

In contrast to the Gore operation, which placed David Boies at the helm of the legal battles, Baker divided the legal responsibilities among specialists, any one of whom had the talent to be a Boies-like superstar had that been his role. Barry Richard, a Florida election law specialist and a Democrat, played the lead role in much state litigation. Future solicitor general Ted Olson argued the federal court cases.

What did Judge Sauls rule for in the Florida Supreme Court?

On December 4, Judge Sauls ruled for Bush on all issues. Because many of his conclusions were reversed by the Florida Supreme Court four days later, it is tempting to gloss over the importance of the contest trial. But by blocking Boies from obtaining an early recount and then winning on the merits in the contest trial, Bush had stopped all vote counting between November 26 and December 4, thereby protecting his slim lead. And by the time the Florida Supreme Court ordered the counting resumed, Gore was backed against the December 12 deadline by which date states must have their electors certified to be certain of avoiding a challenge in Congress. In effect, the Sauls decision left the Florida Supreme Court surrounded on three sides: by Sauls’s own findings of fact, by the deadline, and by the U.S. Supreme Court.

What was the most significant factor in the final Bush victory?

Next to surviving the "ground war," the most significant factor in the final Bush victory was his overwhelming win in the contest trial before circuit court Judge Sanders Sauls. Here Boies asked the court to discard Palm Beach County’s stringent counting rules in favor of the more lax Broward County standards in the manual recounts under way in both Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties, despite their having missed the revised deadline established by the Florida Supreme Court. Boies also asked that the suspended Miami-Dade recount be completed.

What was the irony of the Bush campaign?

One of the great ironies of this period is that the Bush team was in court urging the only counting rules that could possibly have produced defeat for their candidate. Having skimmed off hundreds of votes in heavily Democratic Broward, Volusia, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade Counties, Gore was now battling in counties that had gone solidly for Bush. As subsequent newspaper-sponsored audits would show, the more liberal the counting rules, the heftier the Bush plurality.

What would happen if Bush lost the popular vote?

Both camps felt that three critical consequences would flow from Gore moving ahead: (1) The media and public opinion would press Bush to abandon the fight because he had already "lost" the national popular vote. (2) It would stop the Republican-dominated state legislature in its tracks, making it all but politically impossible for that body to choose a Bush slate of electors, a difficult gambit even in more fortuitous circumstances. (3) It would make it easier for the Florida Supreme Court to hold for Gore without inviting reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Did Gore need to recount the butterfly ballot?

Still, with absentee ballots expected to favor Bush by a two-to-one margin, and with Florida legal precedent weighing heavily against a successful challenge to the butterfly ballots, Gore needed another source of votes. On November 9, he formally requested manual recounts in Volusia, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties, all of which he had won by substantial margins. The obvious purpose was to find a sufficient number of undervoted ballots that could, on visual inspection, be identified as Gore votes, thus reversing the results tabulated by machine.

Background

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Stay of The Florida Recount

Rapid Developments

Relevant Law

Issues Considered by The Court

Decision

Scholarly Analyses

Public Reaction

See Also

External Links