Answer:
1- Early returns called the election in favor of George W. Bush by a small margin, less than a half percent.
2- Al Gore called for a hand recount of votes, but not all votes were recounted because of the deadline.
3- The Florida Supreme Court allowed the recount to continue, but the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it to be stopped.
4- George W. Bush was officially declared the winner in Florida by the Florida Secretary of State.
Explanation:
Bush managed to win by a wide margin in most southern states, with the exception of Florida and Gore's home state of Tennessee. He also won in Ohio, Indiana, most Midwestern states, and Alaska. With the exception of New Hampshire, Gore won in the northern states and all west coast states, including California and Hawaii. On the evening of the election it was especially exciting who would win in the states of Wisconsin and Iowa, but in the end Florida would play a decisive role.
At the end of the election day, Gore had 255 of the 270 electors needed and Bush 246. The states of New Mexico (5 electors), Oregon (7 electors) and Florida (25 electors) were still undecided. In the days that followed, it was announced that Gore had won in Oregon and New Mexico.
In Florida, Bush initially had a 300 vote lead after counting the votes, and a 900 vote lead after receiving votes from overseas military personnel. A certain type of ballot paper, the butterfly ballot, caused confusion: many voters would have cast an invalid vote or voted for the wrong candidate. Gore's campaign team then filed a four-count recount. After media reports, some districts decided to manually recount the votes. The Republicans argued that the counts should apply to all counties or be canceled. They pointed out that the four counties designated by Gore were historically all democratically minded. Florida chief official Katherine Harris stated that the results of the recast votes, as enshrined in Floridian law, should be in by November 14. Ultimately, the Florida Supreme Court determined the final date for the result to be known: November 26. All recounts had to be taken into account in the final result. Some districts that were unable to meet this deadline ended the recounts. On November 26, Bush was declared the winner of the state of Florida.
This decision was challenged by Democrats, and some officials in Washington refused to assist in the transfer of power. On December 12, the Federal Supreme Court declared the recount method invalid because it was not practiced throughout the state. In addition, the Court did not allow recertification in any other way. That same evening, Gore congratulated Bush as the new president in a speech.
