What caused the vote-count controversy in Florida in the 2000 election?

Answer 1

The electoral vote was extremely close in the election between Gore and Bush in 2000. It depended on Florida and Florida kept messing up so they had to keep redueing it. So eventually they found that Florida voted for Bush and Bush became President of the United States with an extremely close victory.

Answer 2

After the returns came in most states, it became apparent that Al Gore had won 500,000 more votes than George W. Bush nationwide, but the electoral vote would depend on which of the two candidates won the 25 disputed electoral votes of Florida.

The Secretary of State of Florida, Katherine Harris, was a Republican, and certified that Bush had narrowly won the majority of votes in the state. But amid allegations of fraud, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a recount.

Then Bush appealed to the United States Supreme Court. In the case of Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court ruled that yes there had been violations, but that Bush should be certified as the winner. As a result, Bush became President.

The decision was hugely contraversial, especially since the second verdict had been split between the 5 conservative judges (in favour) and the 4 liberal judges (in dissent), so many Democrats accused the Supreme Court of voting for their preferred candidate. Outgoing President Bill Clinton condemned it as "one of the worst decisions the Supreme Court ever made" while Gore said that "for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession."