Al Gore: Florida Recounts Would Have Changed Nothing

The study, conducted for USA Today, The Miami Herald and Knight Ridder, officially concluded that even the most liberal recounting of ballots would have seen Gore gain only 49 votes in a full recount. While Democrats bitterly maintained that Gore would have won the 2000 presidential election had a hand recount been allowed to proceed, predicting a swing of 600 votes in Miami-Dade county alone, the study's results showed that a strict count would have actually favored Bush.

The three media groups hired BDO Seidman to examine each of the 60,000 undervotes in Florida's 67 counties. The results showed that 4,892 or 10,646 ballots in Miami-Dade county had no marks at all, while 1,555 could be liberally attributed to Gore and 1,506 to Bush, a swing of just 49 votes. When the stricter standards were applied, and dimpled chads were not counted, Bush was shown to have gained votes in the county.

The results will no doubt force former Vice President Al Gore to re-evaluate his presidential campaign slogan for 2004, which was penned just weeks after the official results of the 2000 election were in: "Re-elect Gore in 2004." The objective results of the study will perhaps convince Gore to take a less cynical stance as he quietly prepares for the next presidential election.