Formally Contesting Certified Election Results in Florida (2000)

On November 27, after vote recounts in Florida declared George W. Bush the winner of the state’s 25 electoral votes, and thus the presidency, Al Gore formally contested the results. He argued that the Florida certification included some illegal votes and ignored some properly cast ballots. Gore’s filing specifically cited three counties: Nassau County, where officials decided to submit their original tally instead of the state-mandated recount, giving Governor Bush 51 additional votes; Miami-Dade County, where a hand-count of 10,750 undervote ballots was not completed; and Palm Beach County, where the manual recount concluded after the deadline, so the revised numbers submitted were not included in the final tally. In this clip, legal experts summarize Gore’s strategy and discuss the potential merits of his claim.

NewsHour with Jim Lehrer | NewsHour Productions (Television station : Washington, D.C..)| November 27, 2000 This video clip and associated transcript appear from 36:23 - 41:39 in the full record.