My memory about this horrible time in our nation's history has mercifully faded, but I thought the Supreme Court ruled that Florida could recount the votes, but they had to recount ALL the votes, not just Al Gore's handpicked Democratic districts.
incorrect.
the USSC objected to...
Miami-Dade county,
some ballots examined by hand on Nov14,
w/decisions by the independedent county canvassing board.
to be added to...
after Dec.12
the rest of the ballots, consider undervotes only.
w/decisions from the FL. state courts
Gore was recounting votes in democrat districts he had already won. I live in Broward County. It was an embarrassment to our country to watch our local democrat commissioners on t.v. examining hanging chads and giving additional votes to gore. As I recall, that's why the U.S. Supreme Court was appealed to and stepped in. Gore was being allowed to overule Florida's election laws with his selective hand counts.
You said it exactly.
Algore's team was trying to cherry pick the counties and the Florida Supreme court was altering the rules regarding counts.
Essentially you would have one set of rules for four counties and another set of rules for the other 63 counties.
No equal protection of all votes.
it was actually a 7-2 on the equal protection part of the case - you cannot recount the votes under one standard in politically selected counties, and not do the same elsewhere in the state.
I think you're right.
Remember how Rita Cosby announced so breathlessly that the court had ruled in favor of gore?
It seems like at least a part of the ruling was that, if they wanted to continue with the re-re-re-counting, they could, but they had to include the entire state (and maybe that they couldn't try to discern voter intent of the under/over votes ?).
At that point, I believe there were so many military votes from the panhandle that hadn't been counted, gore didn't stand a chance.
I also remember talk of a Constitutional crisis if the election went to the Senate. As bad as the Florida chad-counting circus was, imagine what the dems could have done to the country if that had happened!