The year 2000 was full of butterfly hair clips and butterfly ballots. Now, I don’t want to call my readers old—I’m pretty sure my parents and professor are the only people reading this—but even though 2000 seems like it was just a few years ago, I along with my fellow college students, were not even alive yet, so let’s recap!

The 2000 election is our first contested election since 1876. That’s not because we are skipping around, it’s because there wasn’t a contested presidential election for 124 years.

So, what happened?

This contested election came down to a race between Republican George W. Bush, and Democrat Al Gore.

The election was close—very close. On election night the media originally called Florida for Gore. The voter projection model they were using just wasn’t working, and moreover, people were leaving voting unsure if they had actually voted for their candidate. The media had to recall their announcement. Florida was still in play. Or was it? Florida seemed to be going for Bush and Gore conceded. But wait—it was too early. Florida was still too close and Gore un-conceded.

Florida was just way to close. A recount was in order. The Gore campaign brought up issues with ballots—they were confusing, and, in some cases, computers were not counting ballots where you could see that someone had tried to cast a vote. Further complicating the 36 day recount process, George Bush’s brother, Jeb, was the Governor of Florida, and the woman certifying the process, Florida secretary of state Kathrine Harris, was co-chair of Bush’s Florida campaign. The ballot errors and perceived conflicts of interest, along with the fact that Al Gore won the popular vote, galvanized Gore’s supporters.

The political battle eventually leads to the supreme court. In Bush v. Gore, the court sided 5-4 in favor of Bush, making him the next president.

I’d love to tell you exactly who to blame, but I would likely have to recall that answer. It’s simply too close to call.

So, Al Gore lost. If you are anything like my parents (hi mom!) I’m sure you still hold a grudge, but hey, this election is older than me, does it still matter?

Well, Yes, it does.

The questions it raised have not been answered: Is the electoral college democratic? What do we do when the people in charge of safeguarding the election also work for one side? What happens when we don’t trust our election processes? What happens when our process is inaccurate?

I don’t think we have unifying answers to these questions, but studying the 2000 election can help us start.