Who was the rightful winner of the 2000 Election?

[Arbitrage1980]

Lot of liberals have a flawed understanding of what happened in the 2000 election.

Yes, voters accidentally voted Buchanan in Palm Beach County due to the ballot, but it's their fault for not properly reading the ballot. That's not Bush's fault. It goes both ways. The networks should not have called FL for Gore before polls in Panhandle closed.

There was a statewide recount. W Bush won by 537 votes, and the election was certified. Gore wanted a selective recount of just Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Volusia (counties he won). That was rejected by circuit judge Sanders Saul. But FL supreme court ruled in favor of Gore and gave him something Gore didn't even request: a manual recount of all undervotes. That was when Bush appealed to SCOTUS.

Bush vs Gore consisted of two decisions. The first was 7-2 and ruled that Bush's rights under the Equal Protection Clause were violated because a state must apply uniform counting standards throughout the entire state. It cannot do a selective recount or do a recount of specific type of votes. The second decision, 5-4, was obviously more controversial. It ruled that there was not enough time for another statewide recount to meet the safe harbor deadline for electoral vote certification. The deadline for the Electoral College vote was approaching.

There is no evidence that Gore won FL.