Bush Wins Presidency: Supreme Court Decides Election
Five justices stopped a recount. That's it. Florida's 25 electoral votes — and the presidency — came down to a 5-4 Supreme Court decision on December 12th, halting ballot counts mid-process. Al Gore had won the popular vote by over 540,000 people. George W. Bush became president anyway, by 537 Florida votes. The man in the middle was Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a Reagan appointee whose vote sealed it. And the majority opinion explicitly stated it couldn't be used as precedent — meaning they knew exactly how unusual this was.
November 7, 2000
26 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on November 7
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