I.

Introduction

Disputed Presidential Election of 2000, controversy regarding the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election that took five weeks to resolve. The controversy involved Texas governor George W. Bush, the candidate of the Republican Party, and Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic Party contender. The primary setting for the dispute was the critical state of Florida, which each candidate needed to win. Bush won such a narrow election night victory there that it triggered an automatic statewide re-count of the votes. It also led to a flurry of charges, countercharges, and lawsuits challenging the fairness of the contest. The battle for Florida went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States before Bush was declared the winner. Along the way, the dispute raised fundamental questions about the integrity of the democratic process, from the effectiveness of the voting machines and the legitimacy of the electoral college system to whether African Americans in Florida were discouraged from voting.