[Hebrews 11:6]

This issue is ultimately what decided Bush v. Gore in 2000. At Gore's behest the Florida Supreme Court allowed the protest period to extend past its statutory deadline, which thus cut into the statutory contest period. Bush appealed that ruling to the US Supreme Court, which then ruled 7-2 that this left insufficient time for appeals before the "safe-harbor" period (which would ensure Florida's electoral votes could be counted at all when the Electoral College voted), and so they overruled the FSC. Thus, if Gore and his lawyers had honored the legal time deadlines, he might have won.

The USSC's ensuing 5-4 margin hinged on what should have been done about the safe-harbor issue. Bush prevailed.

[JohnBrowdie]

as I recall, a subsequent recount conducted by the MSM (hardly fans of GWB) as a result of FOIA requests revealed that GWB would have won if the recount had run it’s course.

[Alberta's Child]

Good point. I also don’t think it was the deadlines that were the key issue in 2000 — it was the manual counting standards that were not consistent across the entire state.

[Vigilanteman]

Nice reminder. But the fact is the Al Bore knew he hadn't won, he just needed to generate a protest and create the ILLUSION that he might have won had everything been counted, recounted and hand counted.

The silly less than 600 vote margin was a function of cherry picking several Democrat heavy precincts in (surprise) Broward and Palm Beach County so the margin could be trimmed from several thousand to a few hundred. Bush opted not to contest the cherry picking simply because the whole country had grown sick of it and it wouldn't change the outcome anyway.

Don't remember the author, but the book titled At Any Cost documents the entire fiasco better than anything I've ever read.

Public opinion basically turned against Gore's lawyers when they high fived each other for tossing a bunch of military ballots while then wanting to interpret/invent Gore votes with hanging chads. A deja vu was bound to happen sooner or later with THE SAME DAMN two counties still refusing to conduct elections in a professional and transparent manner some 18 years later.

[1Old Pro]

thx