How did George Bush become president when Al Gore got more votes?

Answer 1

By the end, Bush had more electoral votes than Gore (271-266).

The controversy:

As the final national results were tallied the morning after the election, Bush had won a total of 246 electoral votes, while Gore had won 255 votes. 270 votes were needed to win.

New Mexico (5 electoral votes), Oregon (7 electoral votes), and Florida (25 electoral votes) were still too close to call. The news media focused their attention on Florida because their 25 electoral votes became the key to an election win for either candidate. Although both New Mexico and Oregon were declared in favor of Gore over the next few days, Florida's statewide vote took center stage because that state's winner would ultimately win the election.

By 4:30 a.m. on the day after the election, after all votes were counted, Gore had narrowed Bush's margin to just over 2,000 votes, and the networks retracted their predictions that Bush had won Florida and the presidency. Gore, who had privately conceded the election to Bush, withdrew his concession. The final result in Florida was slim enough to require a mandatory recount (by machine) under state law; Bush's lead had dwindled to about 300 votes by the time it was completed later that week. A count of overseas military ballots later boosted his margin to about 900 votes.

The outcome of the election was not known for more than a month after the balloting ended because of the extended process of counting and then recounting Florida's presidential ballots.

Most of the post-electoral controversy revolved around Gore's request for hand recounts in four counties (Broward, Miami Dade, Palm Beach, and Volusia), as provided under Florida state law. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced she would reject any revised totals from those counties if they were not turned in by November 14, the statutory deadline for amended returns. The Florida Supreme Court extended the deadline to November 26, a decision later vacated by the US Supreme Court.

Miami-Dade eventually halted its recount and resubmitted its original total to the state canvassing board, while Palm Beach County failed to meet the extended deadline. On November 26, the state canvassing board certified Bush the winner of Florida's electors by 537 votes.

Gore formally contested the certified results, but a state court decision overruling Gore was reversed by the Florida Supreme Court, which ordered a recount of over 70,000 ballots previously rejected by machine counters. The U.S. Supreme Court quickly halted the order. On December 12, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that the Florida Supreme Court's ruling requiring a statewide recount of ballots was unconstitutional, and that the Florida recounts could not be completed before a December 12 "safe harbor" deadline, and should therefore cease and the previously certified total should hold. Though Gore came in second in the electoral vote (which is how the elections are decided), he received 543,895 more individual votes than Bush.

Answer 2

George W. Bush won the 2000 presidential election defeating Albert Gore, Jr. In the 2000 presidential election George W. Bush received 271 (50.5%) electoral votes and Albert Gore, Jr. received 266 (49.5%) electoral votes. The popular vote totals were Gore 50,996,582 (50.3%) and Bush 50,456,062 (49.7%).

It is possible that a candidate could win the "national" popular vote total but lose the electoral vote total. However, the electoral vote of every state accurately reflects the popular vote within that state. A candidate could win the electoral votes in a large state such as California winning the state by a huge margin. However, the opposing candidate could win the electoral votes in other states because a majority of the voters in those states vote for the opposing candidate.

Answer 3

Al Gore