Infographic Template Galleries

Created with Fabric.js 1.4.5 Bush v. Gore 2000 Bush was running against Gore in the 2000presidential election. This became the closestelection in American history, and thevotes came down to Florida. Such close numbersand reports of faulty voting machines resulted in anorder for recounts. Bush declared that theserecounts were unconstitutional,causing this significant court case in history. Bush was running against Gore in the 2000presidential election. This became the closestelection in American history, and thevotes came down to Florida. Such close numbersand reports of faulty voting machines resulted in anorder for recounts. Bush declared that theserecounts were unconstitutional,causing this significant court case in history. Number of popular voteswon by Gore, gaining 543,895more than Bush The National Election Tim Russert: The Importance of Florida(www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSi3qEghfBQ) The Sides Bush took this case to the supreme courtbecause he felt the recounts on votes inFlorida violated the Equal ProtectionClause of the 14thAmendment. These selective manualrecounts violated constitutionalguarantees and due process. Bush alsoasserted that courts were beginningto replace the roles of the stateLegislature in deciding elections. Plaintiff: Bush Defendant: Gore Al Gore was pushing for many countiesto recount and to continue counting the votes even after the set deadline.Gore believed that the results were illegitimate because the recount was notcomplete, and this was a true violationof equal protection because not all votesare treated equally. O'ConnorRhenquistScaliaKennedyThomas StevensScouterGinsbergBreyer Number of electoral voteswon by Bush, only 5 more than Gore's 266 A total of 4 Justices dissented.these people believed that halting the recounts was violatingthe intent of the voter, and that election results wouldbe illegitimate. Ginsburg and Stevens argued that for reasonsof Federalism, the Florida court's decision to recount votesmust be respected and was fundamentally right, because the Constitution requires that every vote is counted. Chief Justice William Rhenquist The Verdict The ultimate decision was a close 5-4 vote in favor of Bush. The author of the majority opinion,Justice Anthony Kennedy, concluded that the lack of more specific and uniform standards for determining the voters' intent allowed for individual discretion when reviewing ballots that would ultimately lead to "uneventreatment" of ballots between counties and even within a single county. The concurrent opinion written by the Chief Justice stated that Article II provides state legislatures exclusive power to elect presidential candidates, and that the Florida court violated this by altering the original legislative scheme This case was so important to America for many reasons. First, the Bush v. Gore case changed voting methods for the better. It brought the flaws of the system to the puplic and emphasized its need to be updated, so now by 2014 thevoting machines are much more advanced and accurate. This case also showed Americans how easily one branch of Government can take another, where in this case the Supreme Court essentially voted for president, making this not an issue of interpreting the Constitution, but one of politics. Significance It is likely that the Founding fathers would have sided with Gore in this case. Although mechanical voting machines are far from what they would know, it would have boiled down to a simple issue of how accurately votes are being counted, not a political vote between the Supreme Court Justices
Create Your Free Infographic!