Acceptance of Outcome Quotes
3rd Earl Russell of Kingston
The Vice President had beaten George W. Bush by ½ Million Votes, but in the Electoral College the election was in doubt over many irregularities in Florida. Gore had wanted to have a hand count of all ballots that had not gone through the Florida voting machines and thus were not counted. The Bush forces opposed this in the courts, and in a highly partisan 5-4 decision, the U. S. Supreme Court overruled the Florida Supreme Court and stopped the inspection of the ballots leaving the actuality of the over 50,000 ballots unknown thus giving Florida to Bush assuring him of the Presidency. There was much tension as to whether the Gore forces would accept the Court’s decision, especially in the light of disclosures that the attorney son of one of the Bush justices was employed by the law firm representing Bush, and that Bush’s father had appointed another justice voting to make Bush president. A crisis was averted.
