Florida Recount
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The Florida Recount of 2000 was a period of vote re-counting that occurred following the unclear results of the 2000 US presidential election.
The Florida Ballot Project recounts
The Opinion Research Center (http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/about/index.asp|National) at the University of Chicago, sponsored by a consortium of major U.S. news organizations, conducted a Florida Ballot Project comprehensive review (http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/fl/index.asp) of all ballots uncounted (by machine) in the Florida 2000 presidential election, both undervotes and overvotes, with the main research aim being to report how different ballot layouts correlate with voter mistakes.
The media companies involved were:
- Associated Press
- The New York Times
- The Wall Street Journal
- CNN
- St. Petersburg Times
- The Palm Beach Post
- The Washington Post
- Tribune Co
Although the NORC study was not primarily intended as a determination of which candidate "really won", analysis of the results, given the hand counting of machine-uncountable ballots due to various types of voter error indicated that they would lead to differing results, reported in the newspapers which funded the recount, such as The Miami Herald (The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage) or the Washington Post [1] (http://www.aei.org/docLib/20040526_KeatingPaper.pdf).
The findings were reported by the media during the week after November 12, 2001. The recount showed that the majority of voters in the state of Florida voted for Al Gore.
| Candidate Outcomes Based on Potential Recounts in Florida Presidential Election 2000 (outcome of one particular study; not representative of all studies) | ||
| Review Method | Winner | |
|---|---|---|
| Review of All Ballots Statewide (never undertaken) | ||
| • | Standard as set by each county Canvassing Board during their survey | Gore by 171 |
| • | Fully punched chads and limited marks on optical ballots | Gore by 115 |
| • | Any dimples or optical mark | Gore by 107 |
| • | One corner of chad detached or optical mark | Gore by 60 |
| Review of Limited Sets of Ballots (initiated but not completed) | ||
| • | Gore request for recounts of all ballots in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Volusia counties | Bush by 225 |
| • | Florida Supreme Court of all undervotes statewide | Bush by 430 |
| • | Florida Supreme Court as being implemented by the counties, some of whom refused and some counted overvotes as well as undervotes | Bush by 493 |
| Certified Result (official final count) | ||
| • | Recounts included from Volusia and Broward only | Bush by 537 |