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He would not have. He was an unpopular buffoon, and a lot of the population viewed him as illegitimate due to the Supreme Court effectively appointing him over

• AnimalMuppet 5y ago
  > a lot of the population viewed him as illegitimate due to the Supreme Court effectively appointing him over Gore. That may have been the perception, but that's not an accurate reflection of what the Supreme Court actually decided. They decided two things. First, the Supreme Court ruled (by a 7-2 vote) that Gore could not selectively recount. Gore was very carefully asking for recounts in precincts where he was likely to gain votes, and not asking for recounts in precincts where Bush would be likely to gain votes. The court ruled that he couldn't do that. He had to recount generally, not super-selectively. Second, the court ruled (by a 5-4 vote) that he couldn't keep recounting forever. Florida had to have an answer to give to the Electoral College; if they missed the deadline, that would disenfranchise the entire state of Florida. The court ruled that they had to stop recounting and produce an answer. Look at Trump's attempts to recount in Arizona and Wisconsin months to years after the vote was over. Think what would happen if those were official recounts, and we were having to wait on them. That's what the court voted against. > In fairness, Gore did win the count once all of the counting was complete When the unofficial recount done by the press was finished - months after the Electoral College vote - yes, Gore won... by two votes. Would that have been the result of an official recount? Hard to say, but I bet the margin of error of the press operation was higher than two votes.
  • tasty_freeze 5y ago
    You have left out some details. Even though the closeness of the initial results triggered an automatic recount across every county in Florida, not all of them did. The infamous "butterfly ballot" in Palm Beach diverted something like 15% of the vote to Pat Buchanan. Even Buchanan said his votes were unearned due to the construction of the ballot. Bush was listed first and voting for him was unambiguous; Gore was listed second under Bush, but to vote for him one had to punch the 3rd hole down. Buchanan was the first name on the right hand page and the hole corresponding to him was the 2nd one down. The Florida Republican party (and the GOP broadly) did everything to stop the recount, attempting to run out the clock. The Florida supreme court ultimately sided with Gore's claim that the stoppage was illegal, but weeks had already gone by. In your telling Gore kept counting over and over. Finally, there is the way Florida scrubbed the rolls of "illegal" voters. By Florida law, ex-felons were not allowed to vote, even though they had completed their sentences. However, the scrubbing wasn't in good faith. The Secretary of State intentionally did the scrub weeks before the election so there wouldn't be enough time to fix any problems that came up. The majority of the scrubbed votes were not ex-felons, and overwhelmingly those affected were likely to vote D (if they voted). For instance, if your name was D'Andre Weber born in 1975, your name was removed from the list if Florida found any D'Andre Weber born in 1975 anywhere in the country; no effort was made to be more specific. Kathrine Harris was not only the Florida Secretary of State, but she was also co-chair of Bush's Florida reelection committee.
    • AnimalMuppet 5y ago
      Gore did keep counting over and over - but only in certain places. They had a recount. Then Gore asked for a recount of the recount in certain... at least counties, and maybe down to individual precincts. I forget whether he took a third bite at the apple; he definitely took at least two.
      • lupire 5y ago
        In an election, you are supposed to keep biting until all the votes are counted with precision below the margin of error.