History of the United States II / Unit 16 USH2 2305 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Bush v. Gore
The idea
Gore objected that not every ballot had been recounted by hand. After Florida's Supreme Court ordered the recount to go on, Republicans appealed, and the Supreme Court decided five to four to stop it. A narrow majority, Digital History says, held that the recount violated the principle that all votes must be treated equally. Bush received Florida's electoral votes and won the Electoral College two hundred seventy-one to two hundred sixty-six.
In practice
A presidential election settled by a single vote on the Supreme Court.
Where people slip
The misreading treats the outcome as unprecedented. Digital History's hundred and twelve years reach back to eighteen eighty-eight, when Benjamin Harrison also won the presidency while losing the popular vote, and unit seventeen adds another case. The Court's role was new; the split between popular and electoral votes was not.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for History of the United States II