2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The Racist Meme: The South Doesn't Count [View all]monicaangela
(1,508 posts)used the vote count as what decides who won or lost an election.
The complete and final 2000 election results are in. Al Gore, the Democrat, received 50,988,442 votes; George Bush, the Republican, received 50,449,494. Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, got 2,185,330; Pat Buchanan, running with the Reform Party, had 430,307; Harry Browne, the Libertarian, got 390,062; John Hagelin, the Natural Law candidate, got 102,384; Howard Phillips, the Constitution Party candidate, garnered 93,136; James Harris, the Socialist Workers Party candidate got 7,249; David McReynolds, the Socialist Party USA's standard bearer received 5,548 and Monica Moorehead, the Workers World candidate, received 3,171 votes.
There were other candidates who received a smattering of votes. Strickland got 90, Dodge got 208, Venson 535; Brown 1,606; Wright 23; Youngkeit 161; Lane 1,044; Kunzler 1; Kenyon 6; Eicher 4; Huber 3; Pettway 1; Choate 34; Birchler 8; Easton 5; Judd 15; Schriner 24; Marcus 17 and Mooney 7. So, the 2000 presidential election was not just between Al Gore and George Bush, but there were 29 named candidates plus a further 22,150 write-in votes. There were more than 22,000 candidates for president in 2000, not 2. That is, if every vote counts, which, they clearly did not in the 2000 election.
Gore won the election, but Bush was able to get the United States Supreme Court to rule that statutory deadlines were more important than the people's right to have their votes counted. In fact, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no right to vote for president under the Constitution. So the Supreme Court stopped the vote count when Bush had a 300 vote lead in Florida.
http://www.leinsdorf.com/Gore%20Wins%20the%20Election%20by%20538.htm
So Gore won that election, and I'm sure that isn't the only election where the popular vote did not decide who won the election. All votes count, question is: Are all votes counted?