Due to the very old and confusing system of punching in holes for the voting ballots in Florida, this caused many votes to either no be valid or cause confusion as to who did the voter voted for. There were ballots that “the voter has noticeably indented but had not punched all the way through” (“Media Recount”). The recount was allowing these barely punched in holes to be counted, which could have given the possible edge to either Al Gore or George W. Bush. There was much debate as to what should be counted as a vote or not due to this flimsy punching of the cards. The recount was shut down early because of a ruling of the Florida Supreme Court, and the continuation of this recount could “have widened his 537-vote victory to a 1,665-vote margin” (“Media Recount”). Even if the count still pushed on, most “papers reported [that] Bush would have retained his lead” (“Media Recount”). At this point of time, Gore admitted his defeat and Bush became President. With so much controversy of this recount of the voting in Florida, a new act was passed in congress to make sure that this problem never happened again in any future election. In 2002, the Help America Vote Act was passed. The main idea of this act is that it aims to “make sweeping reforms to the nation's voting process” (“Help America”). The act was made to
Due to the very old and confusing system of punching in holes for the voting ballots in Florida, this caused many votes to either no be valid or cause confusion as to who did the voter voted for. There were ballots that “the voter has noticeably indented but had not punched all the way through” (“Media Recount”). The recount was allowing these barely punched in holes to be counted, which could have given the possible edge to either Al Gore or George W. Bush. There was much debate as to what should be counted as a vote or not due to this flimsy punching of the cards. The recount was shut down early because of a ruling of the Florida Supreme Court, and the continuation of this recount could “have widened his 537-vote victory to a 1,665-vote margin” (“Media Recount”). Even if the count still pushed on, most “papers reported [that] Bush would have retained his lead” (“Media Recount”). At this point of time, Gore admitted his defeat and Bush became President. With so much controversy of this recount of the voting in Florida, a new act was passed in congress to make sure that this problem never happened again in any future election. In 2002, the Help America Vote Act was passed. The main idea of this act is that it aims to “make sweeping reforms to the nation's voting process” (“Help America”). The act was made to