AN AMERICAN DIARY

Nov. 7, 2000

ELECTION DAY

America voted today. There were some interesting results. The national voucher movement took it on the chin, with key defeats in California and Michigan. Nevadans and Nebraskans decided to define marriage specifically as a union between a man and a woman. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate, as was Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan -- three weeks after he was killed in a plane crash.

The nation’s attention, of course, was focused most keenly on the contest to determine who would become the 43rd president of the United States: Texas Gov. George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore. It quickly became clear that Florida would be a pivotal -- if not the pivotal -- state.

An hour after the first Florida polls closed, the networks declared that Gore had won the state and its 25 electoral votes, blowing a wide hole in Bush’s national strategy. Bush protested that the projections were wrong, and within 20 minutes the networks began to backtrack, saying the state was too close to call.

“This presidential race,” CBS anchorman Dan Rather told viewers, “is crackling like a hickory fire.”

It had become a night of rollicking, sometimes stunning, television, and Rather was on a strange roll.

“The presidential race,” he said, “is still hotter than a Laredo parking lot, 246 to 242, Bush over Gore.”

And: “You’d have to say this thing is as tight as rusted lug nuts on a ’55 Ford.”

And: “Al Gore’s situation is he’s basically got his back to the wall, his shirttail on fire, and a bill collector’s at the door, but he’s not yet finished.”

At 11:16 p.m. PST, Fox News Channel announced that Bush had won Florida and, as a result, the White House. Within four minutes, the other networks reached the same conclusion. Or, as Rather so uniquely described the situation: “Sip it, savor it, cup it, photostat it, underline it in red, press it in a book, put it in an album, hang it on a wall -- George Bush is the next president of the United States.”

Wednesday, Nov. 8

IT’S A RECOUNT

Midnight had passed, and election night lurched into postelection morning. Shortly after the networks declared Bush the victor, Gore had called his opponent to concede. An hour later, the vote count in Florida tightened dramatically, and the networks began to withdraw their Florida projections. Gore placed a second call to Bush.

“Let me make sure I understand,” Bush was heard telling the vice president. “You are calling back to retract your concession?”

“Well, you don’t have to be snippy about it,” Gore was heard to say.

“Well, Mr. Vice President,” Bush said finally, “you need to do what you have to do.”

The networks found themselves under attack. “They’ve got some explaining to do,” scolded Walter Cronkite, the retired anchor heralded in his day as the Most Trusted Man in America. Television executives shared their embarrassment with a scattering of newspaper editors. Many papers had produced thousands of copies of “Bush Wins!” front pages.

Ralph Nader, too, took some hits. Environmentalists, particularly, were incensed that Nader’s meager showing -- less than 3% nationwide -- was just enough to cost Gore several key states. In Florida, Nader’s 97,000 votes seemed pivotal. He shrugged off the criticism.

This would be a long day. The first lawsuits were filed by voters in response to confusion caused by the design of the “butterfly ballot” in Palm Beach County. By the official count, Bush led Florida by 1,784 votes out of roughly 6 million cast. The closeness, by law, triggered an automatic machine recount. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris told reporters it would be finished by 5 p.m. Thursday.

Thursday, Nov. 9

THE BUTTERFLY BALLOT

Gore’s campaign demanded a recount by hand in four Florida counties. Bush told reporters in Texas that he had begun planning a transition into the White House. And David Letterman quipped on the Late Show: “George W. Bush is not president of the United States. Al W. Gore is not president of the United States. What do you say we just leave it that way?”

At the Lakes of Delray retirement community in Delray Beach, Fla., an enclave of 1,408 townhouses, residents were outraged that Palm Beach County records showed 47 votes for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan and blamed the already-infamous butterfly ballot -- a two-page affair ironically designed to simplify matters for elderly voters.

“It’s something that couldn’t have happened,” said Arthur Robb, community president. “You see, the average age here is 75. The community is 95% Jewish. It’s almost entirely Democratic.”

For his part, Buchanan told NBC’s “Today” show: “My guess is I probably got some votes down there that really did not belong to me.”

Friday, Nov. 10

DIGGING IN

It was photo opportunity day in the presidential race. Gore played touch football with his family on the lawn of the vice presidential mansion. Press photographers, naturally, were invited to take some pictures.

Bush invited news photographers into the governor’s mansion in Austin, Tex., for shots of what appeared to be an Oval Office-like brain trust session. Bush was wearing a large bandage on his right cheek. His communications director explained that the governor had been treated for a boil, possibly caused by an ingrown hair: “It’s not a pleasing sight.”

The fundamental strategies of both sides seemed to have solidified. The Bush campaign, now ahead by 960 votes in Florida, had taken on the tone of the presumptive winner, calling on Gore to give up the fight “for the good of the country.” Gore campaign Chairman Bill Daley dismissed the invitation: “Calls for a declaration of a victory before all the votes are accurately tabulated are inappropriate.”

Election workers in four Florida counties, facing calls for a recount from Democrats, geared up for the task of reexamining thousands of ballots by hand.

From China, incidentally, came reports today that its fifth census of modern times had been completed. It took 10 days to count 1.3 billion people.

Saturday, Nov. 11

BUSH FILES SUIT

A new word has entered the popular American lexicon: “chad.” Not the African nation, but the tiny rectangle of paper that falls from a punch card when a vote is cast. Or doesn’t fall. The three-member Palm Beach County election canvassing committee submitted ballots to the state’s “sunshine test.” If light could be seen through the pinhole, it was a valid vote.

But it wasn’t that simple. There were hanging chads, dimpled chads and pregnant chads, all raising questions of a voter’s intent. Later, the committee adopted a “three-corner rule”: If three corners of a chad were dislodged, that was a valid vote. The trio worked into the night, watched by partisan observers and television crews. After an examination of about 4,600 ballots, Gore was found to have gained 19 votes. After extensive discussion, election officials ordered a manual recount of 460,000 ballots.

The Bush camp broke first on the litigation front, filing a federal lawsuit that sought to block hand recounts in four Florida counties. More election day irregularities surfaced in Florida. Voters who were turned away from polls. Completed ballots that were found strewn across tables. And what was thought to be a locked ballot box that had turned up in a Miami hotel three days after the election.

The box, it turned out, contained only pencils and scratch paper, but the entire world was watching: “Maybe,” a government spokesman in Zimbabwe suggested, “Africans and others should send observers to help Americans deal with their democracy.”

Bush remained at his Prairie Chapel Ranch, a 1,600-acre retreat two hours outside Austin. Wearing a cowboy hat, canvas coat and mud-spattered jeans and standing by a gate his neighbors had decorated with red, white and blue balloons, he chatted amiably with reporters.

“It’s an interesting period,” he said. “We’re all in limbo.”

As he spoke, Bush’s dog, a springer spaniel named Spot, would not stop barking. Bush interpreted.

“She wants it to be over too.”

Sunday, Nov. 12

WAR OF WORDS

Sunday is talk show day in American politics, and dueling pundits unleashed their wits and sound bites up and down the channels.

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, the Bush team point man, appeared on an array of shows, deriding Gore’s call for a recount as “a black mark on our democracy.”

“What we’re litigating today is what the meaning of the word ‘vote’ is,” quipped columnist George Will on one show.

“We’re not in a constitutional crisis,” observed Republican Sen. John McCain on another. “But the American people are growing weary, and whoever wins is having a rapidly diminishing mandate, to say the least.”

“It’s not just human error, it’s human manipulation,” said CNN’s Mary Matalin on “Meet the Press.” She was referring to the hand count of 180,000 ballots in Volusia County.

Matalin’s husband, Democratic strategist James Carville, offered a counterpoint: “With close elections come recounts, come challenges, come all these things . . . I have a totally different take on this than the whole pundit bloviating class: “I think this is a good thing.”

Monday, Nov. 13

TIED IN POLLS

A CNN/Time poll released today asked Americans who they believed, regardless of the eventual outcome, would make the better president. Forty-four % of those polled answered Gore. Forty-four % answered Bush.

It was revealed that a consultant who ran the “decision desk” for Fox News, the network that was first to declare victory for Bush on election night, was Bush’s own cousin. “I doubt he’ll be back in 2004,” a network insider said of John Ellis.

Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson made a prediction: “This baby,” said the Republican from Wyoming, “is going to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Tuesday, Nov. 14

JUDGES RULE

A Leon County judge upheld the deadline for counting ballots but ruled that counties could file new vote totals after the cutoff. Judge Terry P. Lewis then ruled that Florida Secretary of State Harris possessed the authority to accept or reject the new counts, provided that she employed “the proper exercise and discretion.”

Harris ordered three counties to explain by the next day why they should be allowed to continue manual recounts. In Palm Beach County, officials voted to move forward with a hand count. In Miami-Dade County, the canvassing board voted against a full recount. Broward County officials decided to take the matter to the state Supreme Court. A fourth county, Volusia, had finished its manual recount Monday.

At the close of the workday, Harris, an active Bush supporter during the campaign, forwarded to her staff a mock news release making the rounds via e-mail. It began: “The New York Mets announced today they are going to get an additional inning added to the end of Game 5 of the World Series.”

Wednesday, Nov. 15

DEADLINE DECLARED

With Bush reported to be holding a 300-vote lead, the Florida Supreme Court -- a panel dominated by Democrats -- refused to stop the hand counting of ballots. Several hours later, Harris announced that she would declare a winner Saturday after a final tally of overseas absentee ballots.

In making her decision, the secretary of state rejected appeals from counties that wanted to keep counting ballots into the weekend: “It is my duty under Florida law to exercise my discretion and deny the requested amendments.”

Gore campaign officials vowed to seek a court order to overturn Harris’ decision. The vice president, meanwhile, broke eight days of virtual silence by offering to meet Bush “one-on-one” to discuss a proposal that would keep hand counts going in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The plan was rejected by the Bush camp, which declared that “selective hand counts” are “neither fair nor accurate.” Bush himself went on television and said that, in his view, the election should be considered finished as soon as the absentee ballots had been counted.

David Letterman offered a Top 10 list of “dumb guys’ ” suggestions on how to break the stalemate:

10. Find some guy named George W. Gore. Make him president.

9. Each can be president of the people who voted for them.

8. Thaw out Walt Disney; let him cast the deciding vote.

Thursday, Nov. 16

HAND COUNT OKD

Momentum swung Gore’s way today. The Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered the resumption of hand counts of disputed punch card ballots in Palm Beach County. Hours later, workers in the Democratic stronghold began a manual tally of more than 460,000 votes.

“There’s no way in the world that a manual recount is going to be as accurate as a machine count,” warned Brit Williams, a Georgia computer science professor who helped develop federal standards for voting machines.

Two men were accused by authorities of stealing a Palm Beach County voting machine -- butterfly ballots included -- and attempting to sell it on the Internet. In Broward County, sheriff’s deputies found 78 bits of chad-like paper in the count room, which Republicans took as evidence of foul play.

Friday, Nov. 17

DAY OF REVERSALS

In a dizzying day of reversals and contradictions, the Florida Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s decision that would have allowed the secretary of state to certify Florida’s votes.

In another court, a judge refused to require that hand recounts be included in the final result -- a triumph for Bush. Yet another judge rejected Bush’s attempt to stop those recounts -- advantage Gore. In Miami-Dade County, meanwhile, election officials reversed themselves, deciding to allow a recount by hand of 653,963 ballots.

“We’ve gotten good at riding the roller coaster,” a Bush aide said. “Today we had two rides for the price of one.”

Saturday, Nov. 18

THE OVERSEAS VOTE

Florida Secretary of State Harris announced the overseas vote, giving Bush a 930-vote lead. Football fanatics took over Tallahassee, converging on the state capital for the annual battle between the Florida State Seminoles and the University of Florida Gators. Hotels were packed. Even James Baker temporarily lost his room at the Doubletree Inn.

The night before The Game, as it’s known in northern Florida, Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state advising the Gore effort, was spotted by an FSU student at a pregame festival known as the “Downtown GetDown.”

“I don’t know if a guy like that gets down,” said student Ryan Taylor, “but he definitely was out there.”

In Broward County, a Democratic observer at one of two hand counts was accused of chad consumption. “He licked his finger,” said Jim Rowland, a Republican observer, “and put it in the pile. I said: ‘Sir! No! Don’t do that!’ But he put it in his mouth and then he swept the rest up and put some in his pocket.”

Sunday, Nov. 19

Preparing for Battle

Attorneys for Gore and Bush prepared for televised oral arguments scheduled to take place the next day before the Florida Supreme Court. In legal filings, Bush attorneys said Florida gives its secretary of state broad authority to declare a presidential winner. Gore lawyers, in turn, argued that to exclude the hand tallies “would make a mockery” of state law and prevent thousands of votes from being counted.

In Broward County, the elections board voted unanimously to ease chad standards. Earlier, it had been decided that only chads detached on two sides would be eligible for a recount. Under the new rules, any so-called undervotes -- those for which sorting machines recorded no vote for president -- would be reviewed.

This raised the possibility of dimpled chads being counted as valid votes -- a prospect that infuriated Republicans. Observed ABC’s Cokie Roberts: “It’s very interesting; Republicans are for aborting pregnant chads.”

Monday, Nov. 20

BEFORE THE COURT

The attorneys went in front of the Florida Supreme Court, wrangling over whether to declare a winner immediately or press on with recounts. The televised two-hour argument came on a day when CBS News released a survey showing that 59% of Americans favored continued counts.

After the hearing, hundreds of protesters, police officers and reporters massed outside the court’s six-pillared entrance. Traffic on Duval Street was jammed as partisans for Gore and Bush held a shouting contest.

“Every vote counts!” yelled the Gore faithful.

“No more courts!” chanted the Bush partisans.

Some in the throng simply seemed frustrated by the whole mess. A white-haired gentleman in a black bowler hat held aloft a placard that pleaded for a form of federal intervention: “U.S. Supreme Court, Declare Florida Null and Void!”

Tuesday, Nov. 21

‘KEEP ON COUNTING’

The Florida Supreme Court ordered manual recounts in three counties to continue, essentially placing the election in the hands of 1,000-plus citizens enlisted to examine more than 1.7 million paper ballots.

For days on end, these counters have endured greasy chicken dinners and failing air conditioners, tedium and angry outbursts from party loyalists. Now they had one more obstacle: a Sunday deadline set by the state’s high court. When the ruling was announced, Charles Burton, in charge of Palm Beach County’s recount, grabbed a microphone and spoke to his troops.

“Keep on counting!” he urged.

In Broward County, news that counters probably would work Thanksgiving was met with shouts of “Yes! Yes!” by Gore supporters. For Gore, the race for president was now a race with time. Could he erase Bush’s 664-vote lead by Sunday?

Gore attorney David Boies expressed confidence that “any appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court would be denied.” A defiant James Baker said Bush and his advisors “intend to examine and consider whatever remedies we may have to correct this unjust result.”

Wednesday, Nov. 22

MAYHEM ERUPTS

The day veered in unexpected directions: Bush running mate Dick Cheney was hospitalized with chest pains. Bush, not fully briefed by his aides, assured the nation that Cheney “had no heart attack.” Hours later, Cheney’s doctors acknowledged that the former Defense secretary had suffered a “very slight” heart attack.

Mayhem broke out in Miami-Dade County. Republican partisans stormed the offices of the local canvassing board after it announced that, to meet the state Supreme Court’s recount deadline, it would reexamine 10,750 ballots on which no presidential vote had been recorded.

When counters tried to move to a smaller work room upstairs, outraged Republicans -- in what one demonstrator later dubbed the “penny loafer protest” -- tried to force their way in. A receptionist fled in panic. The canvassing board promptly reversed itself and stopped all recounts.

Thursday, Nov. 23

THANKSGIVING DINNER

Americans celebrated Thanksgiving. In Washington, Cheney was recovering at George Washington University Hospital, feeling well enough to put away a full turkey dinner. President Clinton, with family and friends at Camp David, urged Americans to be patient as the hand counting -- and legal wrangling -- plodded along.

“The courts will do what they’re going to do,” he said, “and that’s the way it ought to be.”

Ron Klain, a senior legal advisor for the Gore camp, said the vice president on Monday planned to legally contest the decision by officials in Miami-Dade County to halt its recount. Klain also said Gore would not give up even if Florida Secretary of State Harris certified a final result Sunday that awarded Bush a victory.

Foreign newspapers kept poking fun at America’s inability to close out its election. The Rome-based Communist daily, Il Manifesto, featured a photo of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a clucking headline: “The Turkey Won.”

Friday, Nov. 24

HIGH COURT INVOLVED

Democratic workers in Plantation, Fla., arrived at their office to find the front window shattered by a brick. Republican protesters, many of whom received automated phone calls urging them to hit the streets, rallied in West Palm Beach.

“Keep your hands off me!” Democratic Rep. Peter Deutsch called out as GOP activists pressed around him while he gave an interview outside the Broward County courthouse. Gore running mate Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman compared Florida’s Republican protesters to “a mob.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has ensured that the drama will play on for at least another week. It agreed to hear Bush’s appeal of a Florida Supreme Court decision to permit additional recounts.

In front of cameras, Cheney made a show of walking out of the hospital. Asked if his heart attack had prompted him to suggest to Bush that he be replaced on the ticket, Cheney chuckled: “No. Not yet.”

Saturday, Nov. 25

GAP CLOSES

Amid a forest of legal pads, piles of punch cards and stacks of empty Coke cans, the Broward County canvassing board finished its recount of 588,000 ballots at 11:51 p.m. The recount narrowed Bush’s lead to 464 votes.

Canvassing board member Suzanne Gunzburger held up the last of the ballots to the light, squinted and said with a smile: “A vote for Gore. The last vote is a vote for Gore.”

The Broward County recount was the greatest source of votes for Gore yet in his push to erase Bush’s Florida lead, calculated at 0.008% of the 6 million votes cast.

As the gap between the candidates closed, both sides began to look past the state’s scheduled election certification on Sunday to a new round of courtroom battles. Gore’s lawyers said that if the vice president was still behind when the results are certified, they will pursue legal challenges in at least three counties.

In Texas, Bush was greeted by hundreds of supporters outside the governor’s mansion, including one man carrying a sign that read, “Gore is a chad molester.”

And Gore, on a cold, blustery day in Washington, stepped out for ice cream. Standing in front of Max’s, an ice cream parlor near the vice presidential residence, Gore’s only comment on the events of the day was this: “I recommend the chocolate chip.”

Sunday, Nov. 26

CERTIFYING BUSH

Dressed in a bright red power suit, Florida Secretary of State Harris formally certified Bush as the winner of the Florida election and the state’s 25 electoral votes -- in simpler language, the next president.

The certification, which took place in the somber setting of the Capitol cabinet room, was in stark contrast to the frenetic pace of the day, as the Palm Beach County canvassing board worked desperately to finish a hand recount.

When Harris read the final results -- Bush 2,912,790, Gore 2,912,253 -- a roar went up from the crowd of about 100 partisans standing just outside the room.

Missing from the ceremony was Florida’s governor, Jeb Bush, the Republican candidate’s brother, who had recused himself from the recount process. In his stead was the state agriculture commissioner, Bob Crawford, who said the election was over, at least by his reckoning.

“It should be over,” he said. “And maybe that’s the important word . . . ‘should.’ ”

Two hours later, in a flag-draped office that looked distinctly presidential, Bush spoke to the nation and proclaimed himself the 43rd president: “The election was close, but tonight, after a count, a recount and yet another manual recount, Secretary Cheney and I are honored and humbled to have won the state of Florida.”

Within minutes of Bush’s speech, Lieberman denounced the vote count as “incomplete and inaccurate.” There would be no concession this day.

Monday, Nov. 27

GORE SPEAKS

With 12 American flags as a backdrop, Gore took his case directly to the American people, giving a prime-time speech from his Washington home. All he was seeking, Gore insisted, was a “full and accurate count” in Florida.

“Our Constitution,” Gore said, “matters more than convenience.”

On the day after Bush was certified the winner in Florida, Gore’s lawyers filed suit contesting the election and Bush’s 537-vote margin. Jeb Bush signed the paperwork formally declaring his brother the winner. George W. Bush proceeded as if the election were over, meeting with aides in Austin to discuss Cabinet postings.

In Washington, Cheney outlined his plans for running the Republican transition team. At the news conference where he spoke, Cheney had 14 American flags in the background -- two more than Gore had unfurled.

New issues began to surface in Florida. Testimony taken in a deposition indicated that a Republican elections supervisor in Seminole County allowed GOP workers into her back office to correct errors on thousands of absentee ballot applications.

Fumed Democratic lawyer Harry Jacobs: “It’s like putting two people in a bank vault, unsupervised, and saying, ‘Don’t touch anything.’ ” His lawsuit asked that all 15,000 of the county’s GOP-leaning absentee votes be tossed out. In reply, GOP lawyer Ken Wright said it didn’t matter that Gore was not a formal party to the suit: “Mr. Gore’s fingerprints are all over this,” he said.

An NBC poll found that 49% of Americans believed Gore should concede. The same survey found that 49% of Americans believe Gore should not concede.

Tuesday, Nov. 28

BRING THE BALLOTS

In a legal case that could decide the presidency, a Florida state judge ordered that thousands of ballots be hauled by truck from South Florida to Tallahassee. “You want some ballots up here, well bring ‘em,” said Leon County Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls.

Sauls’ decision was considered a victory for Gore in his legal challenge of Florida’s certification of a Bush victory. The judge did cause some angst among Democrats, though, by postponing any trial until Saturday morning.

Lawyers for both candidates filed legal briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court, where Bush was asking the justices to block any further ballot recounts and bring “legal finality” to the election.

“By acting now,” Bush’s lawyers wrote “ . . . this court will eliminate the potential for a constitutional crisis.”

With many editorial pages across the country calling for him to concede, Gore asked the nation for patience and the Bush lawyers for promptness: “This is not a time for delay, obstruction and procedural roadblocks.”

Wednesday, Nov. 29

TRANSITION TEAM

Cheney met the press at a ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington and announced the formal opening of a presidential transition office. He stood behind a lectern that boasted an official- looking “Bush-Cheney Transition” placard.

The transition operation would be privately funded and would have its headquarters in a suburban office building near Cheney’s McClean, Va., home; the General Services Administration had refused to provide a transition office, citing the uncertainty of the election outcome.

Gore, meanwhile, launched a one-man television blitz, taking a message of optimism to morning shows, evening newscasts and CNN prime time. He also dropped in on President Clinton for 15 minutes -- the first time the two had been together in more than a month.

Asked on the “Today” show what he thought his odds of winning were, Gore responded: “I think they’re still 50-50.” He conceded that the election aftermath had not been an easy passage: “You prepare yourself to win. You prepare yourself for the possibility that you won’t win. You don’t really prepare yourself for the possibility that you flip the coin in the air and it lands on its edge and you get neither outcome.”

Thursday, Nov. 30

TRUCK TREK

A yellow Ryder truck, filled with nearly half a million contested ballots, rolled up the Florida Turnpike, bound for a courthouse in Tallahassee. The truck was escorted by law enforcement officials and political operatives, who said they were on the lookout for any highway mischief. Network television broke in live from time to time to track the truck’s progress.

“There are the chads,” Fox News anchor Shepard Smith announced at one point, “takin’ a trip.”

The truck had been rented to Palm Beach County for a single penny, as Ryder sensed an opportunity to overcome notoriety caused by the use of its trucks in the bombings of the World Trade Center in New York City and the federal building in Oklahoma City.

“Certainly there have been incidents like Oklahoma City,” said Ryder spokeswoman Allison Striegel. “But we’re pleased to have people acknowledge that our brand was chosen to do this. We’re pleased to be part of history, or at least a historic moment.”

O.J. Simpson, speaking to the Associated Press, said he had watched the convoy coverage and come away unimpressed. He thought his own televised run up a freeway, the 1994 slow-speed Bronco chase that preceded his surrender to police, had been “a little more intriguing. Here they know the ballots are going to get to Tallahassee.”

Friday, Dec. 1

SPLIT COURT

The U.S. Supreme Court, for the first time, took up a case that could determine who would be the next president. The justices heard 90 minutes of argument on an appeal by Bush to overturn the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to extend the certification deadline and allow recounts to go forward.

Bush’s lawyers argued that the Florida court improperly stepped on the Legislature’s authority to set election law: “I would emphasize,” said attorney Theodore B. Olson, “that what the Florida Supreme Court did is basically, essentially, say, ‘We’re rewriting the statute. We’re changing it.’ ”

Gore’s attorney, Laurence H. Tribe, countered that in such a close race a recount made sense. “The question is: How do you develop ... greater certainty? And a rather common technique is a recount, sometimes a manual recount, sometimes taking more time. It’d be rather like looking more closely at the film of a photo finish.”

The justices, from their questions, sounded as if they might be as closely split as the electorate.

Saturday, Dec. 2

JUDGE SAULS

Lawyers, lawyers and more lawyers. In Tallahassee, Bush and Gore attorneys battled through a nationally televised, nine-hour court hearing, scrapping for any advantage to vault their man into the White House.

Judge Sauls’ third-floor courtroom overflowed with lawyers. The issue, again, was which ballots should be counted and how. With so many lawyers, the hearing dragged, prompting Sauls to observe at one point: “We’re never going to get this done.”

Far to the north, outside Lieberman’s New Haven, Conn., home, protesters separated by police and barricades squared off over the election. And religion.

“Respect the Sabbath,” Democrats shouted, a reference to the fact that Lieberman is an Orthodox Jew and the Republican protest was being staged on a Saturday.

“Liberal slander,” Republicans chanted back. In any case, Lieberman was not inside. He was in Washington.

Sunday, Dec. 3

TRIAL WEARS ON

Judge Sauls heard seven witnesses for Bush testify about the technicalities of presidential balloting. The trial was the first of its kind: an attempt to adjudicate the race for the White House.

Even with the trial underway, Gore lawyer Dexter Douglass urgently pleaded with Sauls to give an immediate ruling on whether the judge was going to count about 14,000 ballots that the vice president said were improperly tallied.

“If we go another day or two ... ,” Douglass said.

“We’re not going to go another day or two,” said Sauls, refusing the request.

Just before 10:45 p.m. EST, the hearing came to a close. Sauls said he would issue his ruling the next morning.

Meanwhile, Cheney said Gore should surrender to the inevitable: “I do think that it’s time for him to concede.”

Gore, appearing on “60 Minutes,” was asked if he was in a state of “deep denial” about the final outcome.

“I deny that,” he said.

Monday, Dec. 4

‘THE HAIL MARY PHASE’

Bush pounded Gore in the courts. First, the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a Florida Supreme Court decision that kept manual recounts alive. Hours later, after a weekend of televised hearings, Sauls thoroughly rejected Gore’s bid for hand recounts of about 14,000 disputed ballots. It was an unequivocal dismissal of virtually every Gore argument.

There was no evidence, Sauls ruled, of any illegality, fraud, improper influence or coercion in the balloting. Nor was there credible evidence, he said, that recounting the disputed ballots would alter Florida’s vote tally, already signed and certified for Bush. Before Sauls finished reading his ruling, a lawyer for the vice president left the court to file an appeal.

“We’re entering the Hail Mary phase,” said former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta.

Tuesday, Dec. 5

APPEAL COMING

The Florida Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by Gore of Judge Sauls’ ruling for Bush. And yet, faced with a deadline for seating their state’s electoral college delegates, the justices gave lawyers just one day to file legal briefs and scheduled only an hour of oral arguments.

In Seminole and Martin counties, lawsuits alleging that GOP officials had improperly fixed flawed absentee-ballot applications were set to be heard. The cases were long shots, and Gore associates said the vice president was aware that he seemed to be running out of moves.

“He’s not delusional,” one friend said. “He’s too smart, too sophisticated, not to know this is a tough time.”

Bush, after a full month of post-election whipsawing, took nothing for granted. While saying with confidence that he was ready to “seize the moment” as president, Bush swatted away suggestions that he should now be referred to as “president-elect.”

“Until there’s finality,” he said in a nationally televised interview, “call me governor.”

Wednesday, Dec. 6

BALLOTS CHALLENGED

In two Tallahassee courtrooms, Democrats challenged the validity of 25,000 absentee ballots in Seminole and Martin counties. A federal appeals court in Atlanta rejected the Bush claim that it was unconstitutional to allow hand recounts in selected counties.

Florida’s Republican lawmakers weren’t willing to let everything ride on the lawyers. They announced the convening of a special session to ensure the appointment of electors who would put Bush in the White House. “It would be irresponsible not to put a safety net under our votes,” said state Senate President John McKay. He insisted that his actions were nonpartisan.

Thursday, Dec. 7

COUNTING DISPUTE

The Florida Supreme Court took up the matter of whether to count several thousand disputed ballots -- votes that might sway the outcome of the election. An online bidding war broke out. Up for auction was the so-called Chad Chariot, the Ryder rental truck that a week earlier had hauled ballots from West Palm Beach to Tallahassee. “Does it come with ballots?” one prospective buyer asked.

In New Orleans, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Cheney was, indeed, a resident of Wyoming. The 12th Amendment stipulates that presidential and vice presidential candidates cannot reside in the same state, and three Texas residents had contended that Bush’s running mate actually lived in the Lone Star State.

Friday, Dec. 8

A BIG REPRIEVE

Just when he appeared finished, Gore received a reprieve from the Florida Supreme Court. It ordered a statewide recount of about 42,000 votes that had not been counted by machines. The 4-3 decision also trimmed Bush’s lead from 537 votes to 154, ordering that previously excluded hand-count results from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties were valid.

The post-decision spin followed now-predictable lines, with the legal winners praising the Florida court for its high-minded wisdom and the losers accusing it of partisan chicanery.

On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers sobbed and others hooted with joy: “How sweet it is!” crowed Rep. Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash). “It’s like being on the guillotine. Your head’s on the block. Then they say: ‘You’ve got a reprieve from the Supreme Court.’ ”

Bush’s lawyers promptly petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a temporary delay in the recount to allow time for an appeal to be filed. This time Gore’s lawyers refrained from predicting whether the nation’s high court would take up the Florida matter.

Saturday, Dec. 9

RECOUNT HALTED

At dawn, the recount of 43,000 undervotes in Florida started. In the early afternoon it stopped. The U.S. Supreme Court, divided 5 to 4 on the question, halted the recount and scheduled a Monday hearing.

Gore recount observers told reporters that they had gained 58 votes so far during the aborted recount, trimming Bush’s lead to 96.

“Count first and rule upon legality afterwards,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia in the majority opinion, “is not a recipe for producing election results that have the public acceptance stability requires.”

“Preventing the recount from being completed,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in dissent, “will inevitably cast a cloud on the legitimacy of the election.”

Sunday, Dec. 10

EVE OF SHOWDOWN

On the eve of the U.S. Supreme Court showdown in Washington, a sense of finality settled over the once-hyperkinetic Tallahassee landscape. The foreign media had left. So, too, had the protesters in Darth Vader costumes and the legions of lawyers. Still, 21 television trucks remained parked around the Florida Supreme Court building, just in case.

“Every day I think I’m leaving,” one network producer said. “And every day, I’m wrong.”

Monday, Dec. 11

ARGUMENT BEGINS

“We’ll hear argument now,” Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist announced, “in number 00949, George W. Bush and Richard Cheney vs. Albert Gore, et al.”

And so it all had come down to this. After all the fund-raising, the primaries, the conventions, the debates and hard campaigning, and after all the election day aftermath, a month and more of bickering over butterfly ballots and dimpled chads, of incessant political spinning and late-night comedy spoofing, Bush vs. Gore was back before the U.S. Supreme Court in a showdown that promised finality.

The arguments by lawyers and the probing by justices seemed familiar, predictable; the nation by now was well-versed in the applicable law and the inner workings of the court. The argument ended after 90 minutes, at which point Rehnquist thanked the last lawyer standing and said: “The case is submitted.”

The post-session spinning on the political talk shows seemed a bit muted, and largely beside the point. Talking couldn’t do any good anymore.

As the chief justice had said: The case was submitted.

Tuesday, Dec. 12

THE COURT RULES

Waiting. Waiting. Morning slipped into afternoon. Afternoon drifted into evening. And still no ruling. The talking heads of television filled the hours, speculating about what the silence of the court might mean. There was nothing to do but guess, and wait.

And then, in a rush, came the answers. At 10 p.m. EST, the court delivered its ruling. It was a complex and confusing pamphlet, with six overlapping decisions totaling 65 pages. Runners raced down the courthouse steps with bundles of copies and passed them around to eager network correspondents.

They tore into the pages looking for the bottom line, eager to tell a nation hooked on instant expertise who had won. It wasn’t easy. On live television, they stammered and flipped back and forth through the various opinions, reading snatches of legalese, muttering to their anchors. Despite the gravity of the moment, it was funny to watch.

Peter Jennings: “Let’s go straight to the court, because ABC’s Jackie Judd and Jeffrey Toobin are standing by. Jackie, why don’t you start?”

Judd: “Peter, I’m actually going to turn it over to Jeffrey.” Toobin: “I was hoping to turn it over to Jackie.”

In the end, it all got sorted out. The justices had ruled 7 to 2 that there were problems with the Florida ruling. Five of the justices ruled further that they saw no way to a legal remedy that would allow a timely recount.

“This is it,” Ed Rendell, general chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was telling MSNBC within minutes of the ruling. “[Gore] should act now and concede.”

Gore wasn’t quite ready. “Maybe all is not lost,” he told a friend. Maybe just one justice would lean his way if he battled on. From Texas came word from Bush aides that the governor would not be saying anything until Gore actually conceded.

Wednesday, Dec. 13

IT’S OVER

A few minutes before his evening concession speech, Gore called Bush to congratulate him. He promised that this time there would be no second call to retract.

“I call on all Americans,” the vice president said in a graceful address on national television, and “I particularly urge all who stood with us to unite behind our next president.”

A short while later came Bush. He stood in the Texas Capitol and invoked Abraham Lincoln: “Our nation must rise above a house divided.”

The election was over, and it had turned out just as Dan Rather had said, 36 days too early: “Sip it, savor it, cup it, photostat it. . . . George Bush is the next president of the United States.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FLORIDA’S UPS AND DOWNS

Here is a look at when, how much and why Bush’s lead changed:

Nov. 7-8: 1,784

- Election night squeaker; first lawsuits filed

Nov. 10: 327

- Automatic machine recount complete; Gore asks for manual count in four counties

Nov. 14: 300

- State certifies vote for all 67 counties

Nov. 18: 930

- Overseas ballots favor Bush 2 to 1

Nov. 26: 537

- State certifies vote after Florida Supreme Court allows manual recounts in three counties

Dec. 8: 154

193 (Includes Palm Beach County undervotes)

- Florida Supreme Court orders manual recounts of all undervotes. Adds manual recount from Palm Beach County partial recount form Miami-Date County.

Dec. 9: 177

- U.S. Supreme Court suspends manual recounts in Florida; three days later halts recount completely

Source: Associated Press

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Contributing to this account were Times staff writers Mike Anton, Stephen Braun, Rich Connell, Megan Garvey, Lisa Getter, Erika Hayasaki, J. Michael Kennedy, Peter H. King, Robert J. Lopez, Scott Martelle, Richard E. Meyer, Nedra Rhone, Richard A. Serrano and Richard Winton. Times researchers Cary Schneider, John Tyrrell and Brent Wyeth also contributed.