2000 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
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The 2000 presidential contest between the Democrat Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee, and the Republican Governor George Bush of Texas, could fairly be described as one of the closest and controversial elections in our nation's history. For the first time since the 1876 presidential election between Hayes and Tilden, there was the possibility that the loser of the popular vote could win in the Electoral College. Vice President Gore received 48.3 percent of the popular vote compared to 48.1 percent for Governor Bush, a difference of 540,000 votes in favor of Gore. On the other hand, the Electoral College was in balance at the time with George Bush receiving 246 electoral votes compared to Al Gore's 266, leaving the last state of Florida with its 25 electoral votes to determine the 43rd president of the Untied States.
As luck would have it, the Florida vote was the closest of all of the states. Out of the nearly 6 million votes cast in Florida, a margin of less than 1800 votes declared victory for Bush in the original state count. But due to the narrow margin of votes between candidates, Florida law mandated a statewide machine recount of all "accepted" votes. Republicans were concerned about the fairness and accuracy of the voting process, especially since a small change in the vote count could change the result...