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Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election Paperback – October 8, 2002

by Jeffrey Toobin (Author)

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From the best-selling author of A Vast Conspiracy and The Run of His Life comes Too Close to Call--the definitive story of the Bush-Gore presidential recount. A political and legal analyst of unparalleled journalistic skill, Jeffrey Toobin is the ideal writer to distill the events of the thirty-six anxiety-filled days that culminated in one of the most stunning Supreme Court decisions in history.

Packed with news-making disclosures and written with the drive of a legal thriller, Too Close to Call takes us inside James Baker's private jet, through the locked gates to Al Gore's mansion, behind the covered-up windows of Katherine Harris's office, and even into the secret conference room of the United States Supreme Court. As the scene shifts from Washington to Austin and into the remote corners of the enduringly strange Sunshine State, Toobin's book will transform what you thought you knew about the most extraordinary political drama in American history.

The Florida recount unfolded in a kaleidoscopic maze of bizarre concepts (chads, pregnant and otherwise), unfamiliar people in critically important positions (the Florida Supreme Court), and familiar people in surprising new places (the Miami relatives of Elián González, in a previously undisclosed role in this melodrama). With the rich characterization that is his trademark, Toobin portrays the prominent strategists who masterminded the campaigns--the Daleys and the Roves--and also the lesser-known but influential players who pulled the strings, as well as the judges and justices whose decisions determined the final outcome. Toobin gives both camps a treatment they have not yet received--remarkably evenhanded, nonpartisan, and entirely new.

The post-election period posed a challenge to even the most zealous news junkie: how to keep up with what was happening and sort out the important from the trivial. Jeffrey Toobin has now done this--and then some. With clarity, insight, humor, and a deep understanding of the law, he deconstructs the events, the players, and the often Byzantine intricacies of our judicial system. A remarkable account of one of the most significant periods in our country's history, Too Close to Call is endlessly surprising, frequently poignant, and wholly addictive.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Trade Paperbacks
Publication date

October 8, 2002
Dimensions

5.2 x 0.64 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0375761071
ISBN-13

978-0375761072
Lexile measure

1220L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Jeffrey Toobin’s national bestseller
A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President

"An admirably clear, vigorously written, plain-spoken and common-sensical book."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A superb work of factual and legal analysis. . . . Few novels are as gripping."
--The New York Review of Books

"A story as taut and surprising as any thriller. . . . Unimpeachable page-turner."
--People

"A superlatively researched and written book."
--The New York Observer

"An irresistibly readable new overview of the whole ugly case."
--The Boston Globe

"A good read . . . a brave book."
--The Economist

"A rich and readable reprise . . . by the New Yorker writer who shows brilliantly how the American legal system spun out of control."
--Chicago Sun-Times

"Compulsively readable. . . . A Vast Conspiracy delivers new information, provides arresting perspective and is a helluva read for all that."
--New York Daily News

From the Inside Flap

t-selling author of A Vast Conspiracy and The Run of His Life comes Too Close to Call--the definitive story of the Bush-Gore presidential recount. A political and legal analyst of unparalleled journalistic skill, Jeffrey Toobin is the ideal writer to distill the events of the thirty-six anxiety-filled days that culminated in one of the most stunning Supreme Court decisions in history.

Packed with news-making disclosures and written with the drive of a legal thriller, Too Close to Call takes us inside James Baker's private jet, through the locked gates to Al Gore's mansion, behind the covered-up windows of Katherine Harris's office, and even into the secret conference room of the United States Supreme Court. As the scene shifts from Washington to Austin and into the remote corners of the enduringly strange Sunshine State, Toobin's book will transform what you thought you knew about the most extraordinary political drama in American histor

From the Back Cover

From the best-selling author of A Vast Conspiracy and The Run of His Life comes Too Close to Call--the definitive story of the Bush-Gore presidential recount. A political and legal analyst of unparalleled journalistic skill, Jeffrey Toobin is the ideal writer to distill the events of the thirty-six anxiety-filled days that culminated in one of the most stunning Supreme Court decisions in history.
Packed with news-making disclosures and written with the drive of a legal thriller, Too Close to Call takes us inside James Baker's private jet, through the locked gates to Al Gore's mansion, behind the covered-up windows of Katherine Harris's office, and even into the secret conference room of the United States Supreme Court. As the scene shifts from Washington to Austin and into the remote corners of the enduringly strange Sunshine State, Toobin's book will transform what you thought you knew about the most extraordinary political drama in American history.
The Florida recount unfolded in a kaleidoscopic maze of bizarre concepts (chads, pregnant and otherwise), unfamiliar people in critically important positions (the Florida Supreme Court), and familiar people in surprising new places (the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez, in a previously undisclosed role in this melodrama). With the rich characterization that is his trademark, Toobin portrays the prominent strategists who masterminded the campaigns--the Daleys and the Roves--and also the lesser-known but influential players who pulled the strings, as well as the judges and justices whose decisions determined the final outcome. Toobin gives both camps a treatment they have not yet received--remarkably evenhanded, nonpartisan, andentirely new.
The post-election period posed a challenge to even the most zealous news junkie: how to keep up with what was happening and sort out the important from the trivial. Jeffrey Toobin has now done this--and then some. With clarity, insight, humor, and a deep understanding of the law, he deconstructs the events, the players, and the often Byzantine intricacies of our judicial system. A remarkable account of one of the most significant periods in our country's history, Too Close to Call is endlessly surprising, frequently poignant, and wholly addictive.

"From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Jeffrey Toobin is the bestselling author of True Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Oath, The Nine, Too Close to Call, The Run of His Life, which was made into the critically acclaimed FX series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, and A Vast Conspiracy, the inspiration for Impeachment: American Crime Story. He is the chief legal analyst at CNN.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Prologue
Florida Sunrise

The sun rising over the Atlantic casts a peach glow on the Lake Ida Shopping Plaza. Its architectural motif is typical of the lesser strip malls in Florida’s Palm Beach County-ersatz stucco, with a roof of battered tiles. The first rays of dawn land on Good Stuff Furniture, where factory-closeout sofas and love seats are sold on layaway. One storefront over, engineers and hard hats arrive early at the construction office for the job of widening I-95, the truck-choked superhighway whose low rumble and smoggy haze never entirely leave this commercial square. The medical office of Dr. Jean-Claude Tabuteau is open only at night, to serve his working-class Haitian clientele, men and women who spend their days changing sheets and watering lawns at the resorts on the other side of the highway.

On the morning of November 7, 2000-Election Day-the mall had none of its usual subtropical torpor. One of the storefronts was home to the Democratic Party of Palm Beach County, and its offices served as the base for the biggest get-out-the-vote operation that anyone could remember. The plan called for one group of volunteers to work the phones in the party offices and another to disperse to the precincts. The poll workers were to be given their assignments, as well as their leaflets and signs, at a long folding table just outside the front door. A woman named Liz Hyman was in charge of the table.

Hyman had spent a few years as a junior lawyer in the Clinton administration and was now a young associate at a prominent law firm in Washington. She had taken a few days off to help the Democrats try to retain the White House. The plan in Palm Beach County called for the volunteers to vote in their own precincts as soon as the polls opened at seven and then to report to party headquarters for instruction and deployment. It was only a few minutes after the hour when the first of them pulled into the parking lot.

Several-many-were distraught. There was something confusing about the ballot, they said. They weren’t sure if they had actually voted for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman. In keeping with the demographics of Delray Beach, the town where the mall was located, virtually all of the volunteers were elderly and many were Jewish. They had been especially motivated to support Lieberman, who was the first Jew to be nominated by a major party for vice president. What made the problem especially upsetting was that some of the volunteers thought they had voted for Pat Buchanan, a man they regarded as an anti-Semite. What, they wondered, could they do?

Liz Hyman had no idea. Indeed, she didn’t really understand what these people were talking about, and neither did anyone else at campaign headquarters. The local staff of the party had all voted by absentee ballot, so they had not seen the same voting machines as the volunteers who were arriving this morning. Like most politically attuned people, Hyman had a vague sense that voters were sometimes confused at the polls, but this seemed . . . different. These were experienced voters, indeed political veterans. Shouldn’t they have understood what they were doing? It was puzzling.

So Liz Hyman called her dad.

Lester Hyman had been a successful, if not famous, Washington lawyer for several decades. He had a bustling commercial practice, but he also offered discreet volunteer assistance to Democrats in the White House. He helped vet potential nominees for high-profile positions, reviewing their disclosure statements and personal histories for possible areas of embarrassment. Hyman had helped screen candidates for Bill Clinton’s first appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States-the seat that ultimately went to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. During that assignment, Hyman had met a young lawyer on the White House staff who was shepherding the nominee through the process. Now, when Hyman heard the peculiar report from his daughter in Palm Beach County, he remembered that the White
House lawyer had gone on to work for Al Gore. “I’ll give him a call,” Lester Hyman said.

Ron Klain’s cell phone rang just as he was pulling into the parking lot of Gore headquarters in Nashville. It was 8 a.m.

Eleven hours later (twelve in parts of the Panhandle), the polls closed in Florida and the presidential election came to its scheduled conclusion in that state. As it turned out, however, the race for president was so exquisitely close in Florida that no winner could be determined with assurance on election night. Because the electoral-vote margin between the candidates was so narrow across the nation, it quickly became apparent that the victor in
the Sunshine State would win the presidency. The battle raged in and over Florida for thirty-six more days, until Vice President Gore conceded the race to his Republican opponent, Governor George W. Bush, of Texas.

It is impossible to discuss the presidential election of 2000 without superlatives. The race between Bush and Gore was the closest presidential election in the modern history of the Electoral College. It prompted the greatest and fastest mobilization of legal and political talent that the nation had ever seen. It featured the most dramatic and numerous swings of fortune-not only during the post-Election Day period, but often over the course of single days. It included the most unlikely cast of characters for a major national drama-from once-obscure judges who held the fates of the candidates in their hands to the governor of Florida, who happened to be the younger brother of the Republican candidate for president. Even considering the infamous 1876 contest between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden, the race of 2000 was the most extended period of true uncertainty about the winner of a presidential election. And, of course, the battle between Bush and Gore was fought for the highest political stakes.

\The election of 2000 also produced the most sprawling and complex political and legal drama. In Florida, the cynosure was the state capital of Tallahassee, where the chief strategists for both sides plotted their appeals to the governor and secretary of state as well as to trial judges and the state supreme court. At the same time that the candidates were making their cases in the capital, there were equally tortuous and significant skirmishes being fought at the county level. Three of them were so dramatic that the counties themselves seemed almost to take on human qualities-the bumbling and childish Palm Beach, the efficient and mature Broward, the mysterious and sinister Miami-Dade. And yet this contest stretched far beyond the borders of Florida, consuming the entire country and concluding behind the closed doors of the United States Supreme Court.

The election of 2000 also produced the greatest controversy about the “true” result and the “real” winner-in Florida and thus in the election as a whole. This dispute gave rise to still another superlative. The ballots in Florida received more extensive scrutiny from outside-non-governmental-organizations than in any other American election. Alas, even those elaborate inquiries did not produce definite answers; indeed, the recounts conducted by the news media only deepened the confusion about who “really won.” Moreover, the news-media recounts, while understandable and worthwhile enterprises, at some level misconceived and misportrayed the way this election was really decided. Those recounts were based on the notion that the goal of the thirty-six-day battle was to identify an objective truth locked within the state’s ballot boxes. Under this approach, the election was over on November 7, and the candidates’ subsequent efforts were devoted to counting the votes that had already been cast.

A more useful way of thinking about this election, and understanding the final result, is to recognize that the campaign simply continued for more than a month after Election Day. The thirty-six-day battle was fought using many familiar tools, including speech making, image management, crowd building, and lobbying. The Bush campaign not only recognized this reality; its leaders did a great deal to create it. The Democrats treated the recount in a different way-as a discrete event, separate from the race for the White House. It was this fundamental difference in orientation that contributed most to George W. Bush’s victory. The Republicans were more organized and motivated, and also more ruthless, in their determination to win. From the very beginning, the Democratic effort was characterized by a hesitancy, almost a diffidence, that marked a clear contrast to the approach of their adversaries. In a situation like this, where the result was long in doubt, the distinctive attitudes made an important difference.

The reasons for these contrasts start with the candidates themselves. Al Gore had lived in Washington for most of his life, and he had absorbed, as if by osmosis, many of the attitudes of the establishment. He agonized about the views of the columnists, newspaper editorialists, and other elite opinion makers among whom he had lived for so long. Gore cared as much about their approval as he did about winning, and he ran his recount effort accordingly. Ironically, and poignantly, Gore’s solicitude toward the Washington establishment was never reciprocated. To a great extent, the vice president lacked passionate supporters among journalists and politicians, and even ordinary citizens. In the intense conditions of the Florida recount, this absence was notable. The recount required sacrifice, devotion, even a measure of fanaticism from those on the ground. At best, Gore inspired only a distant admiration from his supporters, and he paid the price in Florida.

In almost every respect, Bush was Gore’s opposite. The Texas governor was blithely disengaged from the details of the recount and, instead, trusted his subordinates, chief among them James A. Baker III, to deliver the correct result. Elite opinion mattered little to him; Bush was steeled by a sense of entitlement that protected him from criticism. He was shielded, too, by the devotion of those around him. His campaign and legal staff included a great number of people who were willing to do almost anything to see George W. Bush elected president of the United States. His supporters were willing to take risks, bet their careers, and bear almost any burden for a Republican victory. One candidate had supporters in the streets of Florida, and it wasn’t Al Gore.

This passion gap was the product of forces broader than the different personalities of the candidates. It had been eight years since Republicans controlled the White House, and their hunger for restoration was stronger than the Democrats’ desire to hang on. The presidency of Bill Clinton also gave Bush supporters an extra measure of intensity in this fight. The Republican Party had not just disagreed with Clinton’s policies during his administration; it had regarded him with an almost feral loathing. From the day Clinton was elected, Republicans described him as morally unfit and politically illegitimate, though they met a singular lack of success in persuading the greater American public that they were right. Republicans vented much of their anger against Clinton in legal settings-in lawsuits, investigations, and, ultimately, an impeachment. For Republicans, the Florida struggle against Gore, much of which also took place in courtrooms, served as a useful proxy for the failed onslaughts against Clinton.

Still, inasmuch as the post-election battle reflected the character of the candidates, the nature of their parties, and the state of contemporary politics, there was something else, too: random chance. The vote in Florida was bizarrely, freakishly close, and all the other states fell into place in such a way that the presidency turned on the result in that state alone. Florida itself is an anomalous, singular state, and the place where the electoral crisis of 2000 began-Palm Beach County-is a strange locale even by the standards of the Sunshine State. Error piled upon error, oddity upon oddity, surprise upon surprise. The trigger-the first trigger, anyway-was pulled in a strip mall.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Trade Paperbacks; Trade Pbk ed. edition (October 8, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0375761071
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0375761072
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1220L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.64 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #823,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #124 in Judicial System
- #1,125 in Elections
- #1,152 in Law Specialties (Books)

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Jeffrey Toobin is a staff writer at The New Yorker, senior legal analyst at CNN, and the bestselling author of The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court, The Nine, Too Close to Call, A Vast Conspiracy, The Run of His Life and Opening Arguments. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, he lives with his family in New York.

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Enigma

Too Close to Fiction to be useful

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

About ME: In 2000 I was a registered Democrat and had been working for the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) for close to a decade. During the recount I was involved intimately, being shuttled between Dade (Miami), Palm Beach County and Leon County (Tallahassee – capitol of Florida State). I knew many of the people involved and worked with some of them mentioned in this book. I state this so that you know that I am not just expressing my opinion but rather the on-the-ground activities that were going on in the Democratic Party.

With that background information about me I can say that this book is extremely biased and in way to many cases not at all faithful to the facts as they unfolded during this pivotal time. I will try to be brief and stick to the main points because a proper reply would take a whole book.

Palm Beach County – had been using the same butterfly ballot for over 30 years. It was set up and designed by a Democrat specifically to help older people and those with vision problems. The film admits that Palm Beach County (along with 40 other counties) had Democratic operative lawyers in place DURING Election Day. But doesn’t mention that this is the first time in known history that the DNC had called in a litany of lawyers to monitor a election. This seem highly unusual to us in the FDP. After the election Democrats were the first to lawyer up (the books claims the opposite). The bad thing is even though Democratic operatives went door to door in Palm Beach County they could find less than 100 people who actually were confused by the ballot that Toobin made a big deal over. In fact Toobin claims that there were protests in Palm Beach County, which there were but he never says that they were paid protestors brought in by Jesse Jackson. The fact is that Jesse Jackson’s stunt backfired on us because the protestor busses were visible on camera and many of them admitted they were not residents of Palm Beach County. It was so bad that Donna Brazile, Gore’s campaign manager, insisted that Jackson pack up his paid protestors and get the heck out of Palm Beach County.

The early calling of Al Gore as winner in Florida – The book falsely claims that the 1 hour+ early calling of the state didn’t affect the outcome. This is ludicrous. After the DNC noticed that early calls suppressed voting in the Western Central Time Zone areas they conducted a study that showed an early call would at least 6,000 and up to 14,000 voters. Subsequent vote tallies show that over 10,000 ballots LESS were cast in 2000 than in 1996 when in fact voter turnout was much higher across the state. Poll workers in these highly red districts noticed a very distinct drop off in the last hour which is usually their busiest hours due to the military schedules in the area. Toobin also never tells that the media analysts that incorrectly called the state for Al Gore, even though Bush was leading in the exit polls by a very small margin, had familial ties to Gore and also a PAID consultant for the Democratic Party. Remember the correction to the obvious wrong call didn’t come out till the polls had closed in Western Florida, this was probably one of the most underhanded dirty tricks ever played in national politics but Toobin said “Nothing to see here, move along.”

Gores Concession and taking it back – The book did a good job explaining why Gore retracted his concession to Bush back. At that stage of the game it really was a very close race and he had every right to want a fair recount of all the ballots. However the Bush comments that Toobin claims happened are wholly inaccurate according to both Bush and Gore.

Kathleen Harris – Her portrayal was almost mysognitic he claimed she was as stupid, dumb and vain. The fact is Katherine Harris graduated Harvard University with a Master’s degree, she was an executive for IBM and a Vice President of large commercial real estate firm before becoming a Florida State Senator. In fact the Republicans in Florida credit her for thwarting an activist Democratic Judges decision that the best Republican operatives couldn’t figure out how to do. While Toobin did accurately portray the harsh attack that Kathleen Harris had to endure it didn’t mention that the protestors outside of her office were democratic operatives or that every Democratic media person had received memos excoriating her.

1st Florida Vote Count – Toobin portrays it correctly that Bush won

2nd Florida Vote Count – The Mandatory recount (ordered by Kathleen Harris) – Toobin claims that not every county was recounted. While this is technically correct it is highly misleading and he knows it. I call this the New York Times defense, make a statement that not every county was recounted, spend 20 paragraphs defending that statement and having outrage over it and then in the second to last paragraph admit that those counties only tallied their votes but don’t explain that. Technically speaking a recount is when every vote is recounted on a ballot (votes for president, senator, school board member, mayor, etc.) A tally is when you only recount certain votes (The presidential race). The reason the difference is that not all counties had machines that could just tally one specific vote (Presidential) so they recounted. The other counties that could tally the vote for President did so. So ALL counties Tallied the votes for the president, Toobin purposefully mislead on this. Oh and Bush won a second time.

3rd Florida Vote Count – Toobin lied through its teeth and said that Florida didn’t have a legal way to request a whole state recount. That is false, it was written into law, and all they had to do was request one in within the legal timeframe. The fact is Gore’s legal team was split three ways.
1 - John Young (the United States foremost recount expert) wanted a whole state recount. In his experience recounts always favored the person behind and his expertise was in recounts and the legality of them not necessarily as an advocate to win at any cost.
2 - Warren Christopher and Bill Daley also felt that this was the correct legal way but was worried that this would cause Gore to lose because of the over 10,000 overseas ballots (that historical favor republicans by 60-70% had not been counted yet. They felt that even if Gore picked up a few thousand votes to beat Gore there would be no way to exclude the overseas ballots that would more than make up for the gains that Gore could get. Morally they were in a pickle, they knew the only “legal and ethical” recourse was to a) accept the 2nd recount – Gore loses - or b) ask for a whole state recount, including the overseas ballots – Gore almost certainly loses. They took asking for a whole state recount and trying to exclude the overseas ballots off the table because even if they could win that legal argument (highly dubious) they knew Gore would not be considered a legitimate president. They wanted Gore to win, but not at any cost, and they simply did not see a solution to this problem.
3 - Ron Klain and David Boies knew that the only way Gore could win was to force selected recounts of only counties that were highly Democratic, which was against Florida Election law. They also knew that with the highly partisan and supportive Florida Supreme Court (FSC) they would have their best chance to tweak the election law and allow this to happen. This is why they resorted to lawsuits. They wanted to change Florida election AFTER the votes had been cast. Toobin never once stated that individual county recounts being certified was illegal, instead he portrayed them as a heroic fight put forth by the democrats rather than the subversion of election law. NOTE: Klain has publicly admit that their major error was not asking for a whole state recount, and trying to subvert election law was doomed to failure legally and morally in hindsight.
SIDEBAR: Toobin is Law school buddies with Klain and David Boies is his friend and has represented him pro bono in the past. His bias to them is showing.

Lawyering up – Toobin alludes to the fact that both the Democrats in Palm Beach County and Al Gore’s team were the ones to bring in the lawyers. However he incorrectly states that Bush was also lawyering up at the same time. In fact one of the blunders that we kept wondering about was how far behind Bush’s team was. In most cases we had troops on the ground 24-72 hours ahead of them and we swamped them numbers, it was a constant question of not only what are the Republicans doing but WHERE are they. Toobin portrays this as the exact opposite.

Gore taking the high road – Again all of the evidence seems to point that Gore’s was a win at any cost (at least when he personally thought there was a chance). He lawyered up, he brought in tens of thousands of Democratic operatives, etc. etc. Give the man credit, their machine worked much better than Bush’s and nearly got him the white house. However it also cost the FDP, after the election was over the rank and file was aghast, not that we lost but at what Gore and his legal team would go through to win. I and many other’s quit the FDP after this in protest and they lost the largest amount of paid staff and volunteers in history.

Legal Fight- Toobin totally falsified the historical record. The Democrats filed over 60 state lawsuits throughout Florida hoping to push the case to the highly partisan FSC. The Republicans filed ONE in federal court, they lost. From the few contacts I had the Republicans were lost at why the Democrats were filing so many lawsuits because they didn’t see that Ron Klain and David Boies strategy all along was to get it the highly partisan FSC.

FSC – Toobin portrays that the FSC is a far left court that is highly partisan.

Extending the deadline – Toobin says there was no logical reason to not extend the deadline. That is false, the LAW dictated the methods allowed to resolve close election decision. First there is the regular count, then a mandatory recount if the votes are close enough and finally any candidate can request a whole state hand recount with election supervisors on hand. All of this must be done before the deadline. Kathleen Harris was required by LAW to certify the count on a specific date. Remember the Democrats could have legally asked for a 3rd recount (which they did not want), instead they went the illegal route and tried to recount only their chosen counties and then they wanted to extend the deadline (also illegal but allowed by the FSC). Toobin even stated that “Al Gore isn’t interested in counting all of the votes, he is only interested in counting Al Gore votes.”

Kerey Carpenter – Toobin blatantly lied about her. He said she did not identify herself as a Bush Lawyer to help offer opinion or that was an official from the board of elections which is 100% false. Judge Charles Burton, who was the person who interacted with Kerey said that she clearly identified herself as a lawyer as was there to offer her opinions and monitor the recount (all legal) for the Bush team. NOTE: When Carpenter arrived there were already 3 (some say 4) other lawyers advocating for Gore and they had been there for almost 48 hours. The fact is our team was always a step ahead and more lawyered up than the Bush team but you would never know it by reading this book.

Absentee Ballots – Al Gore’s legal team didn’t want military ballots (which generally don’t have a postmark since they are sent via military carriers) to count even though the law says that as long as they were certified in mail bundles on or before the election they get to count. While some of the ballots that arrived BEFORE the election did get counted (the film shows this). Some of the ballots that were unambiguously mailed before the deadline date but arrived after the vote never got counted, a fact that Toobin forgot to mention the film never shows. Toobin did correctly show that Joe Liebermann thought they should be counted, which as many people knew, would actually seal the election in Bush’s favor.

Going to the FSSC –Toobin lied again that there was some sort of question if the Democrats should go the FSC. This is absolutely false as personal memoirs, internal memos and a whole host of other sources show. This WAS the goal all along, to get this case to the overly friendly FSC, this isn’t conjecture, this a known fact.

FSC ruling – Completely changed the election law AFTER the election and allowed selective county hand recounts. Ironically it only allowed 4 counties to be recount, the 4 most Democratic counties in Florida. This was an obviously a hyper partisan ruling that was designed to get Gore into office. In fact when the United States Supreme Court (USSC) heard this ruling they remanded it to the FSC by a 9-0 ruling with probably one of the most strongly worded rebukes in the courts history. Ironically the Republicans were sure that they would get at least 7-2 ruling on this one but they were worried about Thomas and Scalia buying their argument. Think about that for a moment.

2nd Trip to the FSC – The Gore campaign contested the election and lost so they ran to their ally the FSC. Nobody thought we could win after the stunning rebuke the USSC had given them instead the FSC in a 4-3 decision (three of them learned something from the rebuke) ignored Florida State Law, the US Constitution and federal election law and ordered a statewide recount of undervote’s, ONLY and extended the deadline past the nuclear option (state senators choose the candidate) deadline that the state must follow.

2nd trip to the USSC – Toobin forgot to portray the dismay that the Democrats had with the FSC ruling. It went way too far by ordering a whole state recount of only undervotes(????) which could not have been done in time for Florida’s Electoral College to have counted. This would have caused Florida’s senators to vote and since they favored Bush, Bush would have gotten the votes (this was the nuclear option that was talked about by Republicans but Bush refused to do it) They also knew that without giving a set standard to count the votes by (something the USSC rebuked them for in the first place) they were really snubbing their noses at those justices. The basic issue in front of the USSC was can election laws be changed AFTER an election? Al Gore and the FSC said they needed this to ensure a fair election while the Bush campaign said you have to abide by the laws. In this case 7 of the justices agreed that you have to abide by the laws and not change them after the fact to ensure your victory.

USSC Ruling – “Seven Justices of the Court agree that there are constitutional problems with the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court that demand a remedy.”

Toobin once again lied and claimed the ruling was 5-4, it was not, anyone can google it and read it. Only highly partisan hacks claim it was 5-4

Al Gore’s defeat – Toobin showed that although the Democratic operatives were willing to fight this and cause much upheaval in the country it was finally Al Gore that seemed to be the more sensible one. He knew he had lost, he knew his legal challenges were specious, in the end he took the high road.

I hope this helps anyone who is interested in learning the true history and not some spin.

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Kristin

Definitely a book for every political junkie.

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

I'm old enough to remember the 2000 election but, at the time, I didn't follow the aftermath too closely (I was interested, but not interested enough to immerse myself in it). However, since then I went to college, got degrees in political science and history, so this sort of thing is now in my wheelhouse. I don't say that to brag, I'm just trying to provide a little context/perspective so you know why I would be interested in reading this book. It isn't for everyone, admittedly. It's pretty involved and detail-oriented, but to tell this story properly, it needs to be.

I have to give Jeffrey Toobin a ton (seriously, like a metric ton) of credit for taking on this mammoth project. Oof. The amount of material he must have consumed to be able to write this book had to have been absolutely overwhelming. Hats off to him. I like Toobin a lot (he's a writer and a commentator who also wrote the book on OJ the docu-series was based on) and this book didn't change that opinion. He definitely did a good job making this story one you could understand (and follow). That's not to say it's an easy, breezy read, because it certainly is not. It's a complex story with lots of actors and events to keep track of. But it's a story that, from my point of view, people should know. Interestingly, some of the players are still actively part of the political process today (think Ted Cruz).

Why does Bush v. Gore matter? Partly because it had an undermining effect on the election process, considering the role of the courts as well as the complicated relationships involving some of the parties involved in this case. The Supreme Court chose to end the recount, on a somewhat shaky legal argument, and did so by a 5-4 vote. So, basically, the 2000 election was decided because of the vote of one Supreme Court justice (it's often misstated that the Supreme Court "chose" the winner, which it did not. Its decision stopped the counting of votes in FL, which resulted in Bush being declared the winner.). Because the 5 majority votes were votes of the "conservative" justices, the decision is widely viewed as political, and as an (undesirable) example of judicial activism vs. judicial conservatism. But, let's not get into the nuts and bolts of Bush v. Gore. I don't want to ruin it for you.

I think every political junkie should read this book. It's fascinating, frustrating and, for some, it might even be maddening. This was truly a bizarre moment in U.S. politics, and it's odd that an event which determined the outcome of a presidential election is not more widely known/understood.

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