Page "Bush v. Gore" Paragraph 6

United States presidential election, 2000 | Election 2000 ; Close-up view of satellite truck s parked by the Florida Capitol during the 2000 Presidential election vote dispute On November 8, 2000, the Florida Division of Elections reported that Bush won with 48. 8 % of the vote in Florida, a margin of victory of 1, 784 votes.

The margin of victory was less than 0. 5 % of the votes cast, so a statutorily-mandated automatic machine recount occurred.

On November 10, with the machine recount finished in all but one county, Bush's margin of victory had decreased to 327.

According to author Jeffrey Toobin, later analysis showed that a total of 18 counties — accounting for a quarter of all votes cast in Florida — did not carry out the legally mandated machine recount, but " o one from the Gore campaign ever challenged " the notion that the machine recount had been completed.

Florida's election laws allow a candidate to request a county to conduct a manual recount, and Gore requested manual recounts in four Florida counties: Volusia, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade, which are counties that traditionally vote Democratic and would be expected to garner more votes for Gore.

Gore did not, however, request any recounts in counties that traditionally vote Republican.

The four counties granted the request and began manual recounts.

However, Florida law also required all counties to certify their election returns to the Florida Secretary of State within seven days of the election, and several of the counties conducting manual recounts did not believe they could meet this deadline.

On November 14, the statutory deadline, the Florida Circuit Court ruled that the seven-day deadline was mandatory, but that the counties could amend their returns at a later date.

The court also ruled that the Secretary, after " considering all attendant facts and circumstances ," had discretion to include any late amended returns in the statewide certification.

Before the 5 p. m. deadline on November 14, Volusia County completed its manual recount and certified its results.

At 5 p. m. on November 14, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced that she had received the certified returns from all 67 counties, while Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties were still conducting manual recounts.