America was built on the idea that one branch of the government should not have too much power. The Presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore showed that the Supreme Court has the ability to overstep that boundary. This election was so close and it depended on some debates in a few states, but Florida was the main focus. Florida was the difference between winning and losing for these candidates, and that showed when Al Gore planned to concede after he thought he lost Florida. After he found out reporting was incorrect he found this second wind, and Gore planned to fully fight for his chance to become President. 

 

As mentioned before, the Supreme Court had other ideas. In Florida, the difference between votes was so small that a recount was mandated by the Florida Election Code. The margin of error in this election was evident and something so minuscule like problems with the physical ballot completely changed the results of the election. This ballot was later coined the butterfly ballot and the victor from this scandal was George W. Bush through the proxy of Pat Buchanan. The ballot was set up so that each candidate was on either side of the ticket with the place to punch a hole in the middle. The Democrats naively agreed to this format which ended up costing them the election. Another one of their mistakes was the emphasis they put on the need to recount in certain counties that would favor them. They did this for practicality’s sake and to speed the process up, but the Supreme Court would make their decision based on similar principles. 

 

The Supreme Court stepped in and decided that the Florida Supreme Court was handling the recount improperly. The Supreme Court said that the ballots were not treated the same under the equal protection clause from the 14th Amendment. Since the Gore camp picked specific counties and the Florida Supreme Court allowed differential interpretations of undervotes, the Supreme Court said this recount was unconstitutional. It was still evident that there was something wrong and the results were unclear, but the court did nothing to facilitate a fair and full recount because they didn’t find it practical. The time concerns of the election were certainly on the minds of the justices just like in 1876 when a winner wasn’t decided until the last moment. It seemed that in this scenario the court decided this election because they didn’t want the uncertainty to continue. The Supreme Court’s decision to overrule democracy and determine the winner in the executive branch during the 21st century was an important signifier of the shift of power in this country.