So, after the first count, Bush led by 1780 votes, which was less than 0.5% and an automatic machine recount was triggered. After the recount, Bush led by only 327 votes. But for some reason, 18 counties didn't do a recount and the Gore team didn't challenge this (this was a big mistake). Gore requested a manual (hand) recount in 4 strong Democratic counties only (another mistake, he missed some other counties). However, they were already getting close to the FL law requiring that the state vote be certified 7 days post election. At that point it got into legal battles at the state level and eventually landed in the FL supreme court. The FL supreme court was on the side of completing the manual recounts and delaying certification, opposing the sec of state, who wanted to finish the deal.
By 12/8 several FL court cases had been filed and reviewed. On 12/9 Bush asked the SCOTUS to get involved and they put a stay on the FL recount. The majority's rule on the stay was that a recount of questionable ballots would create a cloud of illegitimacy on Bush's presidency and the Bush team's cause for the request was that a recount would cause irreparable harm. The minority's opinion was just the opposite and many legal scholars have sided with them in review that Bush failed to demonstrate this irreparable harm. At this point, there is zero anyone else could do. The case heard arguments and 7 judges agreed that the FL recount procedure was junk because different counties used different methods, so that basically killed the whole thing due to the whole "Equal Protection Clause" argument that ballots wouldn't be fair across the state.
Gore's team made some mistakes early on (before SOTUS got involved), mostly because they were just unprepared. You know that Gore conceded initially, then when he found out how close the vote was, he called Bush back and called a mulligan and thus began the recounting. Had he continued to challenge it after the SCOTUS verdict, it would have become a joke not much different than Trump. So I don't think "rolled over" is accurate in this case. "Got blindsided and was completely unprepared" is a more accurate description of what happened. But in the final analysis, I'm not sure which is worse. Neither inspire admiration.
Fast forward to Trump 2020. Many scholars have reported on the myriad ways Trump blew his re-election. We should be his biggest fans because if Trump had just behaved like a boring politician for about 8 months, he would still be POTUS. We owe him for wrecking his own election. And amid the wave of nonsense lawsuits, he probably had a few that were legitimate, yet still not grounds for calling an election. I think the most hilarious are those claiming states should throw out absentee votes when they went like 90% for Biden after Trump had been telling his base for 8 months NOT to vote absentee! What a great strategy, telling your own people not to vote!!! And they tried to claim states changed their laws last minute when this all happened years before.
By 12/8 several FL court cases had been filed and reviewed. On 12/9 Bush asked the SCOTUS to get involved and they put a stay on the FL recount. The majority's rule on the stay was that a recount of questionable ballots would create a cloud of illegitimacy on Bush's presidency and the Bush team's cause for the request was that a recount would cause irreparable harm. The minority's opinion was just the opposite and many legal scholars have sided with them in review that Bush failed to demonstrate this irreparable harm. At this point, there is zero anyone else could do. The case heard arguments and 7 judges agreed that the FL recount procedure was junk because different counties used different methods, so that basically killed the whole thing due to the whole "Equal Protection Clause" argument that ballots wouldn't be fair across the state.
Gore's team made some mistakes early on (before SOTUS got involved), mostly because they were just unprepared. You know that Gore conceded initially, then when he found out how close the vote was, he called Bush back and called a mulligan and thus began the recounting. Had he continued to challenge it after the SCOTUS verdict, it would have become a joke not much different than Trump. So I don't think "rolled over" is accurate in this case. "Got blindsided and was completely unprepared" is a more accurate description of what happened. But in the final analysis, I'm not sure which is worse. Neither inspire admiration.
Fast forward to Trump 2020. Many scholars have reported on the myriad ways Trump blew his re-election. We should be his biggest fans because if Trump had just behaved like a boring politician for about 8 months, he would still be POTUS. We owe him for wrecking his own election. And amid the wave of nonsense lawsuits, he probably had a few that were legitimate, yet still not grounds for calling an election. I think the most hilarious are those claiming states should throw out absentee votes when they went like 90% for Biden after Trump had been telling his base for 8 months NOT to vote absentee! What a great strategy, telling your own people not to vote!!! And they tried to claim states changed their laws last minute when this all happened years before.
Why is it so?
~Julius Sumner Miller
~Julius Sumner Miller
